


Every Memory Fades Away Till It's Gone

by allmylovesatonce



Category: The Mindy Project
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-12
Updated: 2015-10-26
Packaged: 2018-04-26 00:29:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 29,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4982824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allmylovesatonce/pseuds/allmylovesatonce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny's had an accident and Mindy is left to pick up the pieces. Angst. Set in the future after they are married.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. keeps coming closer, I don't, but she thinks that I know her

It felt like waking up from the longest night of sleep he’d ever had. The light was bright. Too bright. He couldn’t focus on anything in particular. Once his eyes adjusted to the light he recognized the familiar look of a hospital room. Was he at the hospital? What had happened?

Sitting up wasn’t happening. Picking up his arms was tough enough. He looked around his room. It was empty. He noted the beep of the machines. He tried to sit up again but was still too stiff. He heard the door opening and he looked over to see a nurse entering.

“You’re awake. Hi, Dr. Castellano. How are you feeling?” She asked sweetly.

His mouth felt like it was full of cotton. His voice was cracking as he spoke. “What happened?”

Her face took on a grave expression. “You had an accident. Do you remember?” He shook his head. She looked away from the machines and back to him. “This is the first time you’ve been conscious in ten days.”

Ten days? What kind of accident did he have? Was there a reason this nurse was being cryptic or was his brain just not processing things?

“I’ll have your doctor come in as soon as he can to fully explain what’s going on. One of the other nurses is finding your wife for you.”

“Oh good. Thank you.”

The nurse smiled kindly before jotting a few notes down and leaving. Danny was still left to wonder what the hell was going on. Ten days was a long time. He didn’t have any other notable injuries. What did he do?

The door opened again and another nurse entered as Danny looked toward the door. “Dr. Castellano, your wife is here to see you.”

**

Mindy was walking back from the cafeteria, when she saw it. The looks of pity were all too common in the last ten days. She’d passed one of the OB nurses who’d no doubt heard what happened to Danny. She greeted Mindy with the saddest look. As much as Mindy appreciated their sympathy, she couldn’t take the looks. Yes, her husband was in a coma, but what she needed was words of comfort and support, not looks of pity.

It had been a long ten days. The doctors were optimistic that Danny would wake up, but the longer she sat there, the more hopeless she became. Everyone had been by to see him. His mother was basically always there, just like Mindy. Mindy’s parents had been by to check in on things. They also had been taking care of Leo while Mindy camped out at the hospital.

The first three days had been filled with tears. Mindy kept begging him to wake up but her pleas were falling on deaf ears. Days four through seven were spent wondering what she would do if he didn’t wake up. As many times as she’d sworn she could do everything on her own, it was a lie. She needed Danny. Leo needed his dad and Mindy needed her husband. The last three days she’d just felt lost. She would have been sleeping at the hospital if it weren’t for Leo.

Earlier in the day, she’d sent Annette home. The woman looked exhausted and distraught. Mindy knew precisely how she felt. They’d been trading off times at the hospital. Annette would spend the nights so Mindy could go home and take care of her son. Most of the time they sat together wordlessly staring at the man who brought them into each other’s lives, the man they both loved beyond reason.

Mindy was so caught up in her mind that she almost collided with one of Danny’s nurses. She jumped back in surprise. “Sorry, Karen. I didn’t see you there.” Karen reached out and touched Mindy’s arm.

“He’s awake.”

Mindy felt her heart rate rise. “What? Really? He’s awake?” She was trying hard to not let her excitement boil over. Karen nodded happily at her and led Mindy back to Danny’s room.

Karen leaned in the door saying, “Dr. Castellano, your wife is here to see you.” Mindy rushed past her to Danny’s bedside.

“Oh my God, Danny.” He looked up at her with an almost confused expression.

“Mindy?”

She smiled happily, unable to fight back her tears. “Yeah. It’s me.” She reached down and stroked his shoulder. She wanted to kiss him and stroke his cheek and run her fingers through his hair but she was too afraid to touch his head, lest she jostle anything else.

There was a long silence where Mindy just stared happily at her husband. Danny was nearly expressionless. She imagined it was a bit tough waking up from a ten day coma, so she didn’t hold it against him.

“What are you doing here?” Danny finally asked her.

“You had an accident. You were in a coma for ten days. Where else would I be?”

Danny seemed to be processing her information. “What about rounds? Don’t you have patients?”

“Rounds? Eh, the interns have been fine with other doctors.”

“Interns? Does Dr. Louis know you’re shirking work to check on non-OB patients?”

“Dr. Louis?” Mindy’s stomach dropped. She hadn’t heard the name of their resident supervisor in years. Suddenly the idea that maybe something was wrong hit her. She’d been so focused on Danny waking up that she never even thought of him not remembering when he did. But as she sat there with horror filling her, she realized that while Danny had woken up, there was a chance that her husband hadn’t.

She kept trying to form questions but her brain was stuck. What if he didn’t remember their lives together? Danny wasn’t talking, but he wasn’t the type to fill silences anyway. He just kept looking at her waiting for an explanation. She had no explanation. Even if it wasn’t confirmed, she could feel everything twisting on its axis.

“Wait, Mindy,” Danny finally said.

She shook her head to clear away the horrors currently residing there. Her husband needed her to be strong. He’d been strong for her before, so she could do this for him now. She refocused her attention on him.

“Yeah?”

“Where’s Christina?”

Her stomach sank. Her body felt cold. There it was. That was all the confirmation she needed. It was her worst fear. Amnesia. She could feel bile creeping up her throat. She could feel the tears stinging behind her eyes. She could feel her body rejecting the very idea that Danny had amnesia.

He kept speaking. “The nurse said my wife was here to see me. So where is she?”

She started to draw back from him. He didn’t remember. He reached out slowly and grabbed her arm. She looked first at his hand and then back at him.

“Mindy, where’s my wife?”


	2. I could feel it almost starts to change

Mindy stepped out of the room to call Annette but also to get herself together. She needed to be strong for Danny but it was getting increasingly hard to do so when he basically didn’t know her. She steeled herself to head back in. She had never really answered his question. Before she could open the door and go inside, she heard her name. Turning around, she saw Annette running toward her.

“How on earth did you get here so fast? I just called you two minutes ago.” Mindy inquired.

 “I was already back here. I was in the lobby when you called,” Annette explained.

“What happened to going home to rest?”

“I just couldn’t leave him. And I’m glad I didn’t so I could be here sooner. How’s he doing?”

Mindy felt the tears coming back quickly. Before she could try to blink them away, they were streaming down her face. Annette pulled Mindy into a strong hug. “How bad is it? Just tell me.”

“The doctor hasn’t been in to see him yet. But I think he’s lost the last nine years,” Mindy answered through her tears.

“Nine years? How do you think that?” Annette asked in a small voice, releasing Mindy.

“He asked for his wife…Christina.”

“Oh God.” Annette looked down in pain. “He doesn’t remember you? Or, or Leo?”

“He knows me as one of his new fellow residents. But that’s it.”

Annette raised her hands to cup Mindy’s head. “He’ll come back.”

Mindy shook her head. “You don’t know that for sure.”

“He will. He always comes through in the end,” Annette assured her. “Come on, we should go see him.” Mindy nodded as she tried to brush away her tears. Annette turned back to Mindy suddenly. “Wait, does he know he and Christina are divorced? Does he know what happened?” Mindy looked away guiltily. “You didn’t tell him?”

“I didn’t think I was the right person to tell him that his wife was a cheating whore. Okay? I also didn’t know if it was the right time to drop a bomb like that.”

“I think he’s gonna figure out something’s up when the woman isn’t here.”

“Let’s just dodge his questions about her until the doctor talks to him and we figure out what’s going on. Okay?”

Annette begrudgingly nodded her head and turned to walk inside.

“Ma!”

“Danny!” Annette bawled as she ran to his side and wrapped her arms around him. “How are you feeling, baby?”

He pulled back and looked at her. “Uh, I guess okay considering what happened. My head hurts a bit but nothing too bad. Ma, what happened? No one will really tell me anything. They just keep saying I had an accident.”

Annette looked back at Mindy who sat sulking in a corner. She shrugged, deciding to let Annette do what she thought was best. “Sweetie, you got hit by a car. You hit your head pretty hard.”

“I got hit by a car? But everything feels fine…” Danny asked curiously.

“You got lucky. You have some bruised ribs and a nasty head injury, but everything else was fine.”

“How bad was my head injury? I guess it was bad enough that I was out for a while. I feel okay though.”

“Danny, we’ll just let the doctor explain everything. Mindy said he should be in shortly.”

Danny looked over at Mindy confusedly. He looked back at his mother. “Have you gotten ahold of Christina? Where is she?”

Annette looked back at Mindy, panicked. She started sputtering, trying to think of a response. “Christina, no I haven’t gotten ahold of her. But I did get ahold of your brother and he is very happy to hear that you are awake.”

“O-kay…”

Finally the doctor came in and started talking to Danny. He explained his injuries and what problems he could expect to face. Mindy made no movement to get closer. She sat in the corner and watched everything unfold.

“Why don’t we just see how you’re doing mentally?” The doctor asked, sitting down in a chair close to Danny.

“What is your name?”

“Danny Castellano.”

“Great. What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a doctor.”

“Good. Where do you live?”

“New York City.”

“Good. What year is it?”

“2007.”

The doctor fell silent. He was scribbling away on his clipboard. Finally he looked up at Danny. “Danny, it seems like you have amnesia. Losing parts of your memory can happen with injuries as serious as yours. I was explaining this to your wife,” he said as he gestured to Mindy, “that these things can happen. We can run some tests, but for now we’ll just have to wait and see how much of your memory is gone and how much comes back.”

Danny had looked over at Mindy when the doctor motioned to her. “Hold up. My wife?” He asked, pointing at Mindy as the doctor left the room. Tears fell silently down her face as she nodded. He looked at Annette and she nodded as well. “That’s not possible. My wife is Christina. Not…Mindy.”

“Danny, you and Christina got divorced a long time ago,” Annette explained gently. “You’re married to Mindy now.”

Danny stared at Mindy in confusion. She was frozen in her chair. She’d never felt farther away from Danny than she did then. “I-how?”

“It’s a long story,” Mindy replied softly. “For starters, it’s 2016.” There was a long pause where Danny tried to process what she said.

“2016?! Are you trying to tell me I was in a coma for nine years?” Danny asked exasperatedly.

Annette shook her head forcefully, trying to explain to him. “No, Danny. You were only out for just over a week – ”

“It was a week and a half. Ten days,” Mindy corrected.

“Right,” Annette agreed, appeasing Mindy. “The doctor said you have amnesia. We think you lost, or forgot, whatever you wanna call it, the last nine years.”

“Nine years of memories? You think they just disappeared?!”

“Danny, you’re a doctor, you know head injuries are a mess. You never know what you’re going to end up with when they recover,” Mindy reminded him.

Danny ran a hand over his face to try and calm himself down. He breathed in deeply. “So you’re trying to tell me that I left my wife for Mindy?”

Mindy shook her head vehemently. “That is not remotely what happened.”

“But I left my wife?” Danny asked almost sickened.

“Not exactly,” Mindy replied, dragging out the words.

“She left me?” Danny whispered. He looked at Annette, “Like Dad?”

Annette looked at Mindy with a panicked expression. The selfish part of Mindy was breaking to the surface. She didn’t want to coddle Danny over the loss of his ex-wife from hell. She plopped down quickly on the end of his bed. “She left you. Your marriage wasn’t working anymore, some major things went down, and you got divorced.”

Danny searched her face. “What kind of major things?”

“I don’t think you’re ready for that right now. Let’s just say, you’re much better off without her.”

“Well of course you’d say that. You’re supposedly my new wife,” Danny retorted.

Mindy drew back, pain written across her face. Annette intervened. “Danny, she’s right. You’re much better off without Christina. And I’m your mother. Would I lie to you?”

Danny evaluated his mother’s expression. He looked back and forth between the two women. Mindy could feel fresh tears springing to her eyes. This is not what was supposed to happen when he woke up. She was supposed to get her husband back. She suddenly thought of her son. What would it be like to bring Danny home to a family he didn’t remember? How would he react to a son he didn’t remember having?

Mindy stood up suddenly. “I need to go call my mom.”

Annette looked up at her. “Are you going to check in on – ”

“Yep,” Mindy interrupted. For whatever reason, she didn’t want her son mentioned. “I’ll be right back.”

**

Danny was so confused by everything going on. How was it possible that it was nine years later? The last thing he could remember was being overwhelmed by starting his residency. He and Christina were happy. How was he suddenly married to someone else? And Mindy of all people? How did _that_ happen?

“Ma, you gotta have some explanation for what’s going on. What is happening?”

His mother looked deeply sympathetic. He could see the lack of sleep written across her face. She must have been worried sick while he was in the coma. Suddenly a wave of guilt crashed over him for making his poor mother go through all of this.

“Danny this is real. Mindy is your wife. And a pretty good one from how often you usually rave about her. I mean it’s also peppered with complaints about silly things she does, but the love is there no matter what.”

“That just can’t be possible. I’m married.”

“Yes, you are, Daniel. To Mindy. Christina is a thing of the past, Sweetheart. I’m sorry.”

Danny laid back against his pillow. He just couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that he had…that he’d lost parts of his memory. His memory had always been so sharp. He couldn’t make his mind form the word “amnesia.” He refused to believe he had it.

He shook his head almost defiantly. “I just don’t get it. The last thing I remember is starting my residency. I was happy with Christina.”

“That’s because you hit your head and stuff fell out. I know that’s not the exact explanation, or whatever. But you heard the doctor. This stuff is common with injuries like yours,” Annette replied, patting him comfortingly on the arm.

**

A couple of days had passed and the doctors had cleared Danny to go home. It was a day Mindy had looked forward to since she’d gotten the call that he’d been in an accident. But the closer she got to Danny’s check out time, the more she filled with dread. She was taking home a man who basically didn’t know her to a home he wouldn’t recognize with a son he had no clue existed.

She felt bad for how long she sat in the car waiting for her tears to dry. They’d been a pretty constant stream when she wasn’t around Danny. She did her best to hold it together while she was in the room with him, but otherwise, she was not holding it together well. She’d felt like a little girl the night before as her mom held her while she wept.

For the past couple of days since Danny’d woken up, she’d basically spent all her time at the hospital. There was basically no difference from when he was in the coma, except now, she wouldn’t go in without Annette. Danny actually knew Annette, so he would be himself around her. But the few times Mindy had been alone with him, the situation was incredibly uncomfortable. She didn’t know how to be around her husband anymore and it killed her. How was she going to take him home?

She took her time getting up to his room. The nurses were all excited for her to get to take him home. They must not know he didn’t remember they were married. She didn’t exactly have the stomach to parade that around the hospital.

She slowly pushed the door open and saw Danny with his head ducked in conversation with Annette. He was all ready to leave, he was just waiting for her, it seemed. Danny had a smile on his face from whatever story Annette was telling. Annette looked up first and still kept her smile for Mindy. Danny looked up and his smile faded slowly before he plastered a fake smile on his face. The pangs in Mindy’s heart just kept coming.

Mindy followed Danny’s lead and plastered on her fakest smile. “So you ready to go? The nurses said they already brought you your discharge papers.”

“Yeah they did,” Danny replied. He looked hesitant to keep speaking but he obviously had something to say. “Listen Mindy, I was thinking,” he started. Mindy felt her stomach sinking. It was strangely an almost familiar feeling. “I was thinking that maybe, if it was okay, if it was possible…”

“Don’t beat around the bush for my sake, Danny,” Mindy urged.

“I was thinking maybe I’d go home with Ma instead.”

Suddenly she remembered why this sinking feeling felt so familiar to her. It was the same feeling she had the night he broke her heart and walked away. It was like she was losing him all over again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the comments!! They are seriously so wonderful and encouraging!! Hope you like the new chapter! Let me know what you think! :)


	3. she's a stranger that I used to know

Mindy knocked on the door and waited nervously on the porch. She could hear the familiar cadence of the voices coming from inside. She’d never felt like she was intruding this much. She shouldn’t feel like she was intruding at all.

The door opened and Annette greeted her with a sad smile. Mindy mirrored her. “Ah, you came,” Annette said. She looked suddenly confused. “You didn’t bring – ”

“No. I thought it was best he stayed at home,” Mindy interrupted.

Annette looked at her, still confused. Dropping her voice, she said, “But he’s his son…”

“Look, Annette,” Mindy explained, “I don’t want to push too much on him too fast. This is the first time _I’ve_ seen him in the three days since he left the hospital. And that was because you said you didn’t know if he was ready.”

“So what? You’re just not gonna tell him you have a child together?”

“Not until I think it’s appropriate, no,” Mindy replied. “And I’d appreciate if you’d respect that.”

Annette sighed. “Fine. Come in.”

Mindy steeled herself as she walked through the door. She knew there was a chance she would cry, but she couldn’t. She needed to be strong. Danny needed her to be strong. And she needed to prove to Annette that she could handle the situation they’d been dealt.

She followed her into the kitchen where Danny sat finishing up his lunch. He turned around and looked at her. It had taken her a long time to get used to the love infused looks he would give her. It was going to take even longer to get used to the looks of indifference he gave her now. She plastered on a smile and sat down at the kitchen table.

“Hey, Mindy. I wondered who was at the door,” Danny greeted.

She shrugged. “It’s me.” He just nodded at her. Everything she said felt strained. She could tell that he felt no personal connection and she was battling every instinct she had so that she didn’t overwhelm him. He looked up at the clock on the wall behind her.

“Oh, Ma, it’s time for me to go walk.”

Mindy looked between him and his mother. “Walk?”

“My doctor wants me to maintain some light exercise. I told him I could do more, but he recommended a walk every day. After all I basically didn’t move for ten days right?” Danny concluded with a chuckle.

He was so breezy about the ten worst days of her life. It was hard to try and seem as breezy.

“So, Ma, you ready?”

“You bet, Sugar, just let me go put on my walking shoes,” Annette replied happily.

Were they just going to leave her sitting there? She’d just gotten there. She hadn’t seen her husband in days and this was how they were acting? “Um, would it be okay if I went instead?” Mindy asked hesitantly.

Annette looked at Danny nervously. He moved his glance between the two women. He seemed hesitant to answer. He looked down at Mindy’s feet. “I usually take a pretty long walk and you’re in heels…”

“I live in New York, I’m pretty used to long walks in heels,” Mindy offered.

Danny seemed to consider what she said. Finally he just shrugged and agreed. Mindy didn’t realize it would take so much to get him to agree to a stinking walk. “Great!”

“Yeah. I’m gonna go change really quick,” Danny added and left quickly from the kitchen. Annette followed him out.

Mindy left the kitchen and started looking around the living room. She saw remnants of her old life. A life where her husband gladly brought her over to his mother’s to spend time with all the people he loved. She glanced at the pictures on the wall. Their wedding picture was up there. As were pictures of Annette’s boys. Even Leo. Though it made her feel guilty, Mindy acted quickly, taking down the picture of Leo and storing it in the drawer of the desk. She hated hiding her baby away like that, but with the cold reception she’d gotten from Danny, she wasn’t ready to add the baby to the mix yet.

She was shutting the drawer as she heard Annette’s and Danny’s hushed voices coming around the corner. She ran over to the couch and threw herself down to look inconspicuous. Danny walked up to the couch and looked at her. “You ready to go?” She smiled up at him and jumped off the couch.

She followed Danny out the door and to the road. He picked up a rather brisk pace. She took off after him, confused as to why he was basically running. “I thought your doctor said just a walk would be okay. This seems like more of a run, if you ask me.”

“It’s a comfortable pace for me,” Danny replied over his shoulder.

“So you walk this fast with your mother?” Mindy questioned. It seemed unlikely. In fact it seemed more like he was avoiding her.

“Ma’s deceptively quick. What can I say?”

Mindy rolled her eyes and continued running after him. Her feet were killing her. She hadn’t been lying when she said she could handle long walks in heels. Runs though, were a completely different deal. Finally she hit the point where her feet felt dead.

“Stop! Please just stop!” She yelled after him. She didn’t even know if he heard her until she bent over to take off her heels.

“See? I told you those stupid shoes wouldn’t do,” he replied smugly.

“Maybe they would have if you didn’t seem so hell-bent on getting away from me,” Mindy replied, calling him on it.

“What makes you think I’m trying to get away from you?”

“The fact that you said it was time for your ‘walk’ but you’re literally running,” Mindy answered as she panted. “Look, I get that I’m not exactly what you expected or what you wanted,” she continued, even as Danny looked away from her, “But I just wanted to come by today to see you. Just check in on you, see how you were feeling. I’m sorry if my concern for you is an inconvenience.”

He looked up at her with an almost angry look on his face. She’d seen it before. It was the one he always sported minutes before a real fight broke out. “I appreciate your concern, but I’m fine,” Danny stated, starting to turn around and take off again.

“Could you please not run? I just want to talk to you,” Mindy pleaded. He turned around and looked at her. He seemed to evaluate her for a second before he shrugged and started walking backwards as he still faced her.

“What do you want to know?”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “I don’t know. How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine.”

“And clearly still a man of few words.”

Danny stopped and let her catch up to him. “Look this is just a bit weird for me, Mindy. You’re not my wife. Except apparently you are. Every time someone says so I feel like I’m cheating. Even if I’m not. I just don’t remember it. I’m sorry.”

She started walking and he fell in line with her. “I’m not asking you to remember. I get that you lost part of your memory. I just want to see you. I want to make sure you’re doing okay. If anything happens, I want to know. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. I get that it’s hard for you. But you aren’t the only one going through this.” Mindy looked over at him imploringly.

He seemed lost in thought. They walked silently for several yards. She could feel the awkwardness and the tension between them. It was like a vice around her heart.

Finally Danny spoke. “How long have we been married?”

“Six months.”

“Huh. How long have we been together?”

“A couple of years. It seems like longer than that though.” Danny nodded thoughtfully.

“Ma said you were there every day while I was out.”

Mindy choked back tears. “Yeah, I was. But I’m sure if it was reversed, you would have been too.”

Danny continued to nod. After a long pause, he stopped and said, “This really sucks.”

Mindy coughed out a laugh and stopped too. “Believe me, I know.” She reached out and laid her hand on his shoulder. He jumped a bit and turned to look at her. “But Danny, I meant what I said. You aren’t in this alone. I’ll be here for you. You just have to let me.” Danny kept eye contact as he nodded to her. She moved in closer and wrapped him in a hug. She could feel him tense at the contact, but eventually his arms wrapped around her. She squeezed him before she let go and pulled back to look at him again. Then she continued walking.

**

They’d gotten back to the house and Mindy’s feet were nearly starting to bleed. She was wincing with every step she took. Danny put his arm around her and tried to alleviate some of the pain. She leaned on him with no hesitancy. He led her into the bathroom and filled the tub with warm water for her feet.

She sat with her feet in the tub and he sat on the edge with her, facing the opposite direction. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have taken off running.”

She was silent and it started to worry him. “It’s okay. I honestly don’t know what I would do in your situation.”

“Thank you.”

She turned and looked at him curiously. “For what?”

He stared at her, noting her vulnerability. And her beauty. “For understanding,” he replied with a shrug.

She smiled at him. “What kind of monster would I be if I didn’t cut you some slack?”

He laughed. She had a point. They sat there in silence for a bit. She rested her feet and he kept thinking. There was almost an ease in the silence. He’d been so fearful of her. The Mindy he remembered was not one he ever imagined he’d end up marrying. Clearly things had changed in nine years. His mother tried to tell him things, but she didn’t know everything. He imagined only Mindy would know everything.

He took a deep breath to prepare himself for what he was about to ask her. “Look, Mindy,” He started. She looked up at him. “I don’t know if I’m ready to leave Ma’s. I’m just more comfortable here.” She nodded understandingly. “But, I’d like to figure out more of my life. And I feel like you’re really the only person to help me do that.” She smiled weakly. “Do you think we could figure something out?”

She nodded quickly. “Danny, I’m willing to do whatever you need me to. I want you to remember probably almost as badly as you do.” She reached out and grabbed his hand where it was between them on the tub. She squeezed it comfortingly. She leaned her head against his shoulder. As if his body was responding on its own, he laid his head against hers. He was still incredibly confused, but for the first time since he’d woken up from his coma, he was actually optimistic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the comments!! They are so encouraging! :)   
> I hope you enjoy this chapter!   
> Thanks for reading!


	4. but then it hurts too much

Danny sat in Central Park on a beautiful fall day. It had been awhile since he’d gotten the chance to really admire how pretty it all was. Or maybe it hadn’t been. That was the problem with amnesia. He was waiting on Mindy. He wondered to himself if she always ran late. The times they’d been meeting lately seemed to imply so.

“Hey! Sorry I’m late. Getting a cab was hell,” Mindy explained, running up to where Danny was sitting.

He shrugged at her. “It’s fine. I was just sitting around. Not like I have anything better to do.” He noticed a painful expression crossing her face. Every time he tried to seem nonchalant about things, he’d notice that same expression on her face. The Mindy he remembered was generally pretty perky and self-centered. While he couldn’t tell if this Mindy was still as self-centered, he couldn’t help but feel guilty when he caused her pain.

“So you ready?” Mindy asked.

Danny jumped up next to her. “Sure.”

They started walking through the park. Mindy was doing her best to catch him up on the last nine years. Every time they met, she’d share more details of his past and of their lives together. He had a feeling she was hiding things, or protecting him from things. He wanted to call her on it, but he understood why she was doing it.

“Wait, I admitted to you that I was a stripper?” Danny asked, scandalized.

Mindy laughed heartily. Danny couldn’t help but feel a bit of joy from actually hearing her laugh. “I wouldn’t say you _freely_ admitted it. I more or less dug it out of you, but yeah, I know all about Diamond Dan.”

“Wow,” Danny sighed, unable to say much more. “I don’t think I told Christina that.”

Mindy stopped and stared at him. “Seriously?”

“I mean unless it was some little thing that I don’t remember doing, no, I don’t think so.”

Mindy smiled to herself before matching his stride again.

“So what other deep dark secrets do you know?”

“Umm, I know a lot, Danny.”

“Such as?”

“Okay, I know your middle name. I know about you carrying a purse to school…”

“I told you that too?”

“Danny, I realize that you kinda lost a bit of information, but we are in fact married. We don’t have very many secrets from each other.”

Danny nodded his head in understanding. It made sense to not keep secrets from each other. He just wasn’t used to _Mindy_ knowing all his secrets. He wanted to explain it to her, but he didn’t want to hurt her any more. He also wanted to ask her if she was currently keeping any secrets from him. He still didn’t think it was the right time.

She was silent for a bit. He didn’t know if she was waiting for him to ask her more questions or if she was deep in thought. It happened a lot when they would get together. They’d be together for a few hours, sometimes more. He’d try to piece together his life with her help. But every now and then she’d just fall silent, like he’d stumbled upon another sore spot. It killed him to feel like he was hurting her. Knowing her or not, he wasn’t a fan of unnecessary pain.

Danny couldn’t take the silence any longer. “I have a doctor’s appointment on Thursday.” Mindy looked over at him. “I was thinking, if you had time or whatever, if you wanted to…maybe you could go with me?” Mindy smiled at him. “I know you mentioned you haven’t gone back to work yet, so I didn’t know if you would be available. Ma doesn’t really know all the doctor terminology and stuff. You know?” Mindy nodded in reply. She’d yet to actually speak yet. “So would you be able to…or, uh, would you like to go with me?”

She smiled brightly. “Yeah, Danny, I would.”

**

Mindy heard a knock at the door and looked first at the sleeping child next to her before answering the door. Leo was still sound asleep so she jumped up before another knock could wake him up. She didn’t know who to expect at that time of night, but opened the door anyway. If Danny had been there, he would have yelled at her for opening the without looking who it was first. As it was, Danny wasn’t there.

But apparently Jeremy was. “Jeremy? What are you doing here?” Mindy asked, opening the door further to let him in. He stepped into the entryway.

“I wanted to give you guys your space. I know Danny went home from the hospital a couple of weeks ago and I didn’t want to get in your way, but I was nearby and I hadn’t heard from you both in a while. I just wanted to stop by and check in on the three of you.”

Mindy felt tears spring to her eyes. She was so touched, but also so saddened by what Jeremy had said. Of course people would expect Danny to have come home to his actual home. Mindy sprang forward and gave Jeremy a big hug. “That’s so sweet of you to think of us.”

“So how is it going? How’s Danny doing? Did I come by too late?”

“Uh, Leo’s out, but I’m sure he’ll be awake in another ten minutes.”

“And Danny?”

Mindy was at a loss for words. Her parents knew that Danny had amnesia, but they were the only people she’d explained it all to yet. She was spared by the cry of her baby. She ran and picked him up and started rocking him slowly. Jeremy looked at Mindy with a concerned look.

“Mindy, where’s Danny?”

She started crying before she could will herself not to. “Danny’s at Annette’s,” she said simply.

“Why?”

“Are you really gonna make me say this?”

“I’m just confused. I see you and Leo are here, but I don’t get why Danny isn’t.”

Mindy swallowed quickly. “Because he doesn’t remember us.”

Jeremy looked purely horrified. “What?”

“He woke up thinking it was 2007. He remembers Me, his co-resident, but not Me, his wife. He thinks he’s married to Christina, not to me.”

Jeremy closed his eyes in pain. He quickly looked back at her and pulled her and Leo into a hug. “Mindy, I’m so sorry. Why didn’t you tell us? We could have been here for you.”

“I didn’t know how to explain to my friends that my husband doesn’t remember me,” Mindy said, choking back a sob.

“Listen, take all the time you need from the office. I’ve got people covering for you and Danny still. Your job will be there when you decide you’re ready to come back.”

Mindy smiled weakly at Jeremy. “Thank you,” she whispered. He wrapped her in another hug.

“I’m so sorry, Mindy.”

She nodded sadly. “Yeah, me too.”

**

Danny sat in his favorite coffee shop nervously awaiting her approach. Theoretically he shouldn’t be nervous, but he was. He had a lot he wanted to talk about, a lot he wanted explained. He didn’t really know how this coffee meeting (he couldn’t let himself call it a coffee date) was going to go. He heard the door open and there she was. His nerves somehow grew as he watched her spot him and cross over to the table.

He stood to greet her. “Hi.”

“Hi. You know I have to say, I was completely shocked to receive this call,” she replied. “I figured after the last encounters, you’d be pretty done interacting with me at all.”

“Well, Christina, I had some things I needed to hear from you,” Danny explained to the woman he knew as his wife, but the rest of the world knew as his ex-wife.

She sat down hesitantly across from him. “So what’s going on? What do you need to hear?”

He didn’t want to reveal that he had a head injury. He just wanted to figure things out and he knew Mindy was keeping something from him about Christina. “How…um, no, what happened to us?”

Christina gaped at him. “Excuse me? You called me out of the blue to rehash our divorce? Danny, come on.”

“Look, I’m just thinking through my life, trying to re-examine things. Could you just humor me?”

“To put it in diplomatic terms, we stopped communicating. You got incredibly caught up in your job, I didn’t want to be constantly tied to New York. You got tired of me travelling and we just fell apart.”

“But it started with me?” Danny could feel a sickening feeling taking over him. He was just like his dad. He couldn’t handle his marriage so he let it fall to dust.

Christina narrowed her eyes. She had a weird expression gracing her face. “I certainly thought so. I’m sure you didn’t though. The second time, it definitely felt more on your shoulders than mine. Granted, I never believed that wasn’t because of a _certain_ someone.”

Danny had no idea what “the second time” meant. He was also curious who this other person would be. He was about to ask more questions when she laughed. “Well, speak of the devil…” Danny followed her gaze and turned to see Mindy standing a few tables away with a pained expression on her face.

“Mindy,” was all he could get out before she plastered on a smile to hide her pain.

**

He was with her? He was with _her_? She didn’t think she could feel any sicker than when he asked for Christina when he woke up. Yet she walked into her favorite coffee spot and saw her husband with his ex-wife. Sick may not be the right word to describe how she felt.

Danny looked panicked as he noticed her, like he’d been caught. Christina had a self-righteous grin on her face as she sat back in her chair. Did she know what was going on? Mindy plastered on the fakest smile she could manage, attempting to walk past them to the counter.

“Mindy, so good to see you,” Christina said with hints of sarcasm.

“Oh believe me, I’m so pleased to see you too,” Mindy replied, her tone matching Christina’s. Danny was looking nervously between them.

“What are you doing here, Mindy?” Danny asked cautiously.

“I was just getting some coffee. I needed a bit of a pick me up. Now maybe I’ll make it a venti.”

“Mindy, I –,” Danny started.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Christina looked between them confusedly. “Am I missing something?”

Mindy cleared her throat. “Christina, do you think I could have a word with you? Maybe up by the counter?” Shrugging, Christina followed her.

“Okay, so what the hell is going on? Because Danny is acting really weird and Mindy, you look like a kicked puppy.”

Mindy took a breath to prepare what she was about to say. “Danny got in an accident recently. He was in a coma for ten days,” Mindy explained. The smirk faded from Christina’s face. She looked over at Danny with concern before glancing back at Mindy. “When he woke up he thought he was still married to you. In fact, he can’t remember the past nine years. Which makes it a bit weird for me, considering we got married within that time.”

Christina gaped at Mindy. “You and Danny got married? I shoulda known.”

“Okay, could we deal with your bitterness and past predictions another time? Look, I don’t know why Danny called you, but just keep in mind that he is not in his right mind. He thinks that you two are still in love and happy. He clearly has no idea just how big of a heartless bitch you really are.”

“Excu –”

“You think in the past few years he hasn’t told me stuff? You think I don’t remember Weiner Ni – I mean, your gallery show?” Christina stayed silent. “Look, he clearly needs to meet with you for whatever reason, just please, don’t hurt him any more than you already have. It was hard enough trying to get him over the damage you did the first time, I really don’t want to have to do that again.”

Mindy turned away from her and walked toward the door. She was on the sidewalk when she felt a pull on her arm. She was tugged around back in the direction of the coffee shop. She turned around to see Danny was the one who stopped her. He looked upset.

“Mindy –”

“Don’t worry about it, Danny,” Mindy interrupted.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t even know you’d be there, I just…” He paused, wondering how to explain it to her.

“You just had to figure things out for yourself. I get it, Danny.”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what? In your mind, that’s who you’re supposed to be with. I’m the outsider in your mind,” she replied with a hopeless shrug. “If you want to figure out how it happened that your wife cheated on you and then plastered naked pictures of you all across New York, then don’t let me stop you.”

“Wait, what?”

“Crap. I didn’t mean to tell you that,” Mindy explained, hanging her head in guilt. She looked back up at him. “Danny, I don’t control you. If you want to figure stuff out, just go do it.”

“I don’t want you to be mad at me,” he said in a small voice.

She smiled faintly and reached out to touch his cheek. She dropped her hand before she made contact. The movement didn’t go unnoticed. “I’m not mad,” Mindy assured him as she started to back away.

Danny stepped closer, attempting to maintain the same distance as she backed away. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

Mindy felt a tear trickle down her cheek and hoped it went unnoticed. She just shook her head. “Just go back inside, Danny. Don’t worry so much about me.” She tucked her jacket in around herself and walked away. She refused to look back to see if he was still there. Once she was turning the corner, she couldn’t resist any longer. She looked quickly and saw him still standing there watching her leave. Suddenly she felt a little less cold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the spirit of me being thrilled to finally have a break from school, here's another chapter!!  
> I am really appreciating all the comments and kudos!


	5. I almost forgot who you are

Mindy wasn’t quite sure why Jeremy had called her to meet with him. He’d claimed he had a big surprise for her. In her current emotional state, who was she to say no to something that could cheer her up? Her mother had taken Leo shopping with her, so Mindy’s afternoon was free. She was sitting in a crowded restaurant waiting for Jeremy to show up.

Mindy was reading an article on her phone when someone approached her table. “Um, excuse me, ma’am, is this seat taken?” Her first instinct was to yell at the man for calling her “Ma’am.”

“Actually, it is,” she replied, not looking up until the end. She looked up and screeched. “Peter?!” She jumped up from the table and hugged him.

“Hey, Mindy!” Peter exclaimed, hugging her tightly.

As she pulled away, she saw Jeremy and Morgan approaching from behind him with big smiles on their faces. “Peter what are you doing here?”

They all sat down around Mindy’s table. “Well, Lauren had some business stuff to do here, so I tagged along. I figured I’d check in on all my bros. I went by the office but you weren’t there.”

Mindy looked down guiltily. “That was why I called you. We thought you might need a pick-me-up,” Jeremy explained. Mindy smiled at him before she reached out and grabbed Peter’s arm.

“This was a great surprise.”

“Yeah, and Dr. P said he would buy my lunch, so that’s why I’m here,” Morgan added.

“I didn’t actually say that, Morgan. You said I should buy your lunch and I laughed and said, “Yeah wouldn’t that be nice of me.” I never actually agreed to that…” Peter replied.

“Now you’re just making things uncomfortable,” Morgan answered.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s great to see you guys. Or anyone who isn’t my parents who keep looking at me like they’re worried they should be removing sharp objects. So…”

All the guys adopted sad faces. “Yeah, how are you doing, Mindy? How’s Danny? I’m sorry I couldn’t get up here sooner.”

“Why be sorry? It’s not like he’d remember you anyway, Peter,” Mindy tried to add nonchalantly. They all looked at her with heartbroken expressions. “So it hasn’t been the easiest few weeks. I really thought that once he woke up the worst of it would be over, but I was wrong. But I’m trying. I’m not the one with the brain injury, so I feel guilty saying it’s been hard for me.”

Jeremy reached out and patted Mindy on the back gently. “Mindy, this affects you too. It’s alright for you to say it’s been hard.”

Mindy nodded slowly. “He really doesn’t remember anything from the last nine years?” Peter asked. Mindy just nodded in reply.  “He doesn’t even remember Leo?”

“No. And he currently has no clue that Leo exists.”

They all overlapped in their shock.

“Wait, what?” Peter asked.

“Hold up!” Morgan exclaimed.

“Mindy!” Jeremy chided.

Mindy threw up her hands. “Look, you guys have no idea what it’s like. I’m doing this for Leo. Annette thinks I’m being crazy, but I’m just looking out for my son. It sucks to look at someone you love and have them look at you like you’re another stranger on the street. Or another baby passing by in a stroller. I could have one of you walk by with Leo and Danny wouldn’t know the difference.”

They calmed back down in the wake of her explanation. Morgan was the first to speak. “I’m sorry, Dr. L.”

“Yeah, that sounds rough,” Peter added.

Mindy sighed. “It’s okay. This is my life now.” She took another deep breath before looking at Jeremy. “Unless I can come back to work…”

Jeremy looked up at her with a surprised expression. “Mindy, are you really ready to come back?”

“I have my days set aside for whenever Danny feels like meeting or if he has appointments. And all I do is hold my baby and think of the fact that his father isn’t there. And I dodge my parents’ heartbroken glances. I need something to do with my time. I can’t really help myself, so why not help other people?”

“That’s not bad logic,” Peter agreed.

“Mindy, your job is yours whenever you want it. If you want to come back, we’ll be overjoyed to have you.”

“So what are you gonna do about Dr. C?” Morgan asked.

“I don’t know. Keep seeing him. Wait for his memory to come back. Either that or wait for him to get so annoyed being back under Annette’s thumb that he comes running back because he realizes that he has other options,” Mindy added with a laugh.

“That doesn’t really sound like Danny, though. Getting annoyed by Annette, I mean. That hasn’t ever happened. And she’s probably given him plenty of opportunities,” Jeremy replied.

“Ugh, you’re right,” Mindy whined. After a beat she asked, “What should I do?”

They all sat there thoughtfully.

Peter’s eyes lit up. “Have you ever thought of banging the memories back into him?”

“Ooh! Like in a fight? I could hit him with a bat. Bang the memories back in for you,” Morgan offered.

“No, no, no. I meant like sex. Just give him a nice mind blowing orgasm, and maybe that will do the trick,” Peter explained.

Mindy stared at him blankly. “Peter, maybe leave the brain stuff to your wife…”

Peter scoffed. “I think it’s a pretty solid suggestion, Mindy. I mean you’d both get something out of it.”

Mindy shook her head almost humoredly as she reached for her vibrating phone. She had texts from her mom and from Danny. Her mom sent her a picture of Leo with yet another outfit she was buying for him. She held her breath as she checked her text from Danny.

**Hey, I’m in the city. Are you busy?**

Mindy sat there and contemplated her response. They met almost every day and she felt like she was running out of things to talk about with him. While he seemed to be getting more comfortable with her, she still felt a good distance between them. Chatting with her friends had given her a good boost for the day. She wasn’t sure how she’d feel after she met with Danny.

Then she realized that her worrying about how _she_ would feel was completely selfish and she replied to his text.

**I’m not busy. What did you have in mind?**

As it turned out, Danny was actually nearby. The guys were getting up to get back to work when Mindy spotted him coming in the restaurant. Danny saw her and smiled, weaving his way toward her.

“Hey!” He said, seemingly happily.

“Hi,” Mindy answered.

Danny looked around uneasily at the men with Mindy. She wondered how it was that he could look at people that he’d known for years and not even recognize them.

“Jeremy, right?” Danny asked, pointing at him.

Well one out of three wasn’t too terrible.

“Yeah. Danny, how are you?” Jeremy asked, reaching out to shake Danny’s hand. The whole situation was awkward.

“I’ve been better,” Danny replied, looking at Mindy uncomfortably. “So do you still work with Mindy?”

Jeremy looked quickly at Mindy for approval. “Yes, I do. For many years now.”

Danny nodded slowly. He turned to look at the other two.

Peter quickly stuck out his hand. “I’m Peter. I used to work at the practice until I moved to Texas.”

“Gotcha.” Danny turned to Morgan.

Morgan threw his hands up. “Nope. You know what, I’ll tell you my name when you remember me,” he yelled before stalking away from the group.

Peter turned to his disappearing figure. “Dude! What is wrong with you?”

“Classic Tookers,” Jeremy muttered.

Danny nodded his head uncomfortably. “Maybe I shouldn’t have come…”

“No, Danny. He’s just an idiot,” Mindy reassured him.

“She’s right,” Jeremy added. He grabbed Danny on the shoulder. “It was good to see you.”

Danny nodded. “Yeah, you too, man.”

Jeremy and Peter both hugged Mindy before turning to leave. Mindy could tell they felt down after their interactions with Danny. She knew the feeling well. 

**

Ma was out at some church ladies’ dinner with Dot. She hadn’t wanted to go, but Danny made her go. He didn’t want to keep holding her back from things that she’d enjoy. He was watching some documentary but he wasn’t pay attention to it very well. His mind was lingering on the afternoon.

He’d spent more time with Mindy. For the last few weeks, they’d been meeting almost every day. Even if it was fake, she usually seemed enthusiastic about meeting him. Today she’d just seemed off. She was quieter than usual. He had to prod a lot to get real answers out of her. He couldn’t stop thinking about what could be wrong. Was it just that hard to be around him?

A knock at the door broke Danny out of his thoughts. He answered the door, surprised to see Jeremy on his front porch. “Jeremy? What brings you by?”

Jeremy looked uncomfortable. “Hi, Danny. I hope it’s okay that I stopped by.”

Danny stepped back from the door, gesturing for him to come in. “Yeah, it’s fine.” Jeremy followed Danny into the kitchen. “Is there something I can get you man? You’re British, so would you like some tea?”

“That’s not stereotypical at all,” Jeremy muttered. Danny turned around to ask him what he said. “Just water would be fine, Danny.” Danny nodded and filled him a glass. Danny sat down at the table and Jeremy followed suit. There was a long and heavy silence between them.

Finally Danny couldn’t take it anymore. “So what brings you by?”

Jeremy sighed. “It probably isn’t my place, but I came here for Mindy’s sake.”

“Mindy sent you?”

“No. In fact, she’d probably kill me if she knew that I was here,” Jeremy replied with a chuckle.

“So then why did you come by?”

“Because she would never tell you all the important things you need to know.”

Danny looked at him skeptically. “Like?”

“Like that I’ve obviously known you both for a very long time and so I know you both quite well. I know to you it doesn’t seem that way right now, but I do. And I can tell you that, without a doubt, I’ve never seen you happier than you are with Mindy.” Jeremy paused to let that statement hang.

Danny had a thoughtful look on his face. Finally he made eye contact with Jeremy again. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Honestly it’s that way for both of you. Mindy was always a chipper person but there was a definite change once you got together.” After a beat, Jeremy continued. “I’m fairly certain that Mindy wouldn’t say this because she’d think it would make you feel bad.”

“So you’re gonna make me feel bad for her?” Danny asked with a laugh.

“It’s not my main goal. Mindy would never tell you that she’s basically a better, happier person with you. She’d never tell you how much she’s done to improve your life. She’d never admit all that she’s done to overcome your damages, to fix your relationships, to provide you with the life that you always wanted but didn’t really think you could have.”

Danny could feel tears stinging his eyes. He didn’t know how to react to what Jeremy was saying. “It was really that big a change? Being with Mindy, I mean?”

Jeremy nodded. “You just grew as a person. I think it’s that growth that comes from really being happy. Honestly, you both did. It was like once you figured that out, the rest just fell into place. Like once you were in a relationship with someone you trusted and someone you loved, life became simpler. Not necessarily easy, just _easier_.”

Danny stared at him. “So how come Mindy wouldn’t tell me this?”

“Because she’s not the type to brag about how good she is for you. Well, unless it’s in a fight. Or to prove it to someone else.”

Danny nodded understandingly. “So why did you feel you needed to come tell me this?”

“I can only imagine how hard it must be to have a decade of your life ripped from you. It must seem easier or tempting to just plot a new course. I told you this because you have a great life on hold for you. I don’t know if anyone’s given you that motivation yet. Don’t give up on Mindy. You need her, even if you don’t feel like it right now,” Jeremy concluded.

He stood up and looked down at the dumbfounded Danny still sitting in his chair. Jeremy patted his back. “It’s good to see you, Danny.”

**

“Ma! Where did you say your keys were?”

“They’re on the table!”

“No, they aren’t!” Danny yelled back. “I already looked there.”

He was shuffling through the house trying to find the car keys so he could go run errands for her. Was she hiding the damn keys from him so she could just go? What was the point of the speech he gave her about letting him be helpful if she was just going to ignore it?

He walked to the desk and started digging through the drawers. “Ma, why don’t you check your purse?” Danny yelled to her. He shut one drawer and opened another. As he opened it, a smiling baby looked up at him. He was confused as he pulled the picture out of the drawer. He looked at the picture, studying the features of the baby boy in the frame. He looked up at the wall and noticed that it could easily fit up there. In fact, it looked like it’d been taken down. Danny stared at the picture for too long. He kept trying to figure out who this little boy could be and why Ma would be hiding it. He heard footsteps behind him.

“Good thinking, Danny. The keys were in my purse,” Annette said as she entered the room.

Danny turned around slowly. “Ma, who is this?” He held up the picture for her inspection.

Annette looked back at the wall behind him. “I knew that picture was missing. Where did you find that?”

“It was in the drawer of the desk. Why don’t you answer my question, Ma? Who is this little boy?”

Annette sighed. “Danny, don’t be mad at me. I was only following the rules.”

“The rules?” Danny asked exasperatedly, “Ma, who is this?”

Annette approached him slowly and took the picture from him. She looked at it before turning it to face him. “Danny, this is your son.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Parts of this chapter were inspired by my love of Jeremy. Sometimes he'll say things in the show that makes me think that he's closer to Danny and Mindy than the show really lets on. And I just felt like Mindy needed some sort of support system. Enter Jeremy.   
> I hope you enjoyed this!! Thanks for all the encouragement! It's great!


	6. when did your heart start to beat slower

The day had been running smoothly. It was still only Mindy’s first week back at work since Danny’s accident. She’d given a big speech about not treating her with kid gloves. Everyone seemed to be operating normally, except for the fact that Danny was noticeably absent. Mindy was standing at reception chatting amiably with one of the nurses when Danny stormed in.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” He yelled at her.

She looked around at everyone staring at her. She looked back at Danny. “What do you mean?”

“You didn’t think it might be important to tell me that we have a son?!” He responded, still yelling at full volume. Jeremy and Peter ducked out of Jeremy’s office, observing the fight. More and more people seemed to be tuning into the drama. Mindy turned around and walked to her office and gestured for him to come inside. She walked behind her desk, thinking it might be good to put some distance between them.

“How could you do this, Mindy? How could you not tell me that I have a child? That I’m a father! I just don’t understand,” Danny continued at the same level from before.

“Listen I will explain this to you if you would just bring the volume down a few decibels. This is where I work,” Mindy pleaded.

“Yeah, well I work here too, so maybe I’ll continue at whatever level I’d like to.”

“How do you know that? Do you remember that?” Mindy asked in a small voice.

“You told me we worked together. I saw my name on the door…” Danny explained quickly.

“Right,” Mindy replied softly.

“I just don’t get it, Mindy. How the hell could you leave out something that big?”

“Look, Danny, I – ,”

“You know I felt like you’d been keeping something from me. You seemed to always pick your words so carefully, like you were treading around something. I didn’t get it. I figured you’d want me to know everything there was to know about my life, but apparently not.”

Mindy started to respond, “I had my reasons for doing what I did. I – ”

“Oh I’m sure you did. You know I kept wondering how the girl that I remembered from residency who was selfish and self-centered turned into you, someone who I thought was kind and caring. Apparently it’s just an illusion. You’re still the same selfish person you were before; you just somehow tricked me into believing you’d changed.”

Mindy choked back tears. This was not the time to show weakness. “You think I’m selfish? You think that’s why I did this?” Mindy stood up straighter, prepping herself to make her case. “Danny, I get that you’re going through a lot right now. I get that it must be hard to wake up and find out that nine years of your life are gone. That everything changed and you have no idea how or why. But you don’t know what it’s like to sit by your spouse’s bed while they were unconscious only to have them wake up and not know you. You don’t know what it’s like to pray that the person you love won’t die, only to have them recover and look at you like you’re meaningless. Excuse me for trying to protect my sweet, innocent son from the pain that comes from your looks of indifference.”

Danny looked confused. He opened his mouth to respond but Mindy still had more to say.

“I did this because I couldn’t stand the idea of having you look at my son and not even recognize him. You may think I’m selfish, but I didn’t tell you about him so that I could protect him. You think I’m heartless and that I’m a terrible person, but you know what, given a second chance, I’d do the same thing. And you know what? I think if the roles were reversed, you would do the same damn thing, Danny. If you were the person burdened with remembering, you would choose to protect your son from the pain of all this.”

“I want to see him,” Danny said simply.

“No.”

“ _No_?!” Danny yelled back at her.

“No. It’s been weeks since he’s seen you. But he’s starting to cry for you less. I hear a lot less “Dada” when I go to pick him up. I mean it’s still there, it’s just less. And if you see him, he’s gonna be so happy. He’s going to think that you’re back. And then when you decide that it’s just easier to start a new life rather than recapture your old one, he’s going to be crushed again. And I’m going to have to be a heartbroken woman trying to make her heartbroken baby happy again. And I’m not gonna let that happen. I’m sorry.”

Danny stared at her for a long time. She could see the fury on his face. She could see the pain written there too. She only hoped he could read the pain on her face just as well.

“I can’t believe you.”

“Yeah, well if you’re ever on this side of things, I think you’d understand. Now if you don’t mind, I have work to do. Please leave,” she replied, sitting down at her desk slowly. Danny stared at her for a bit longer before he opened her door and left.

Jeremy and Peter didn’t wait long before they wandered hesitantly into her office. Jeremy was the one to break the silence. “Mindy, are you alright?”

“I just really would like to be left alone.”

“If you need us, we’re here,” Peter offered as he crept forward and placed a Kleenex box on her desk. Mindy nodded appreciatively at them before they turned around to leave.

She sat there trying to gather herself together. She knew it would be hell to walk back out in the office. There was no way that everyone hadn’t heard that. If she had been tired of the looks at the hospital while Danny was in a coma, she knew she was going to hate the ones now.

Her phone rang and she took a deep breath before answering it. “Dr. Lahiri,” she answered.

“Oh Mindy! It’s Annette. Danny found out about Leo. He’s on his way to see you. I think he’s upset.”

Mindy decided to calm herself before replying. “Wow, Annette, your timing is incredible. He just left actually. You don’t think you could have called me, I don’t know, as he was leaving your freaking house?!” She may not have calmed herself enough.

“I’m sorry. I was going to but then Dot came over and I got distracted.”

“Oh you got distracted? Well I just got chewed out in front of everyone that I work with, Annette. You’re saying there’s not a small part of you that’s okay with that?”

“Well I don’t get why you hid the picture of Leo in the first place. I don’t see why you just didn’t tell Danny about him.”

“Annette, you’re busy trying to take care of your son. Excuse me for just trying to do the same thing,” Mindy replied. She looked up as Morgan entered her office.

“Your pager went off. You have a delivery,” he explained quietly.

She was tuning out whatever retort Annette was spouting. “Listen, Annette, as lovely as it would be to be scolded by you, I have work to do. I’ll talk to you later.” She didn’t wait for a reply before she hung up.

She wrapped her head around going to the hospital. It would be the first time she was back there since Danny went home. Luckily a delivery seemed like a good distraction. She packed up her things and attempted to push the pain and guilt of what had happened to the back of her mind. She knew who she needed to get through the rest of the day, to get through leaving her office.

Whispering to herself she said, “You are not Mindy. You are Beyoncé Pad Thai.” She took a deep breath and opened the door. 


	7. my whole memory of me in love's gone so far from me, it's not fair

Danny had been seething when he’d left Mindy’s office. He wasn’t ready to return home and face his mother, so he just wandered around the city. The longer he wandered, the calmer he got. But once he wasn’t angry anymore, he realized what he’d done. He replayed everything he'd said to Mindy. He started to feel sick. If someone had said those things to him, he’d have decked them. He needed to make it up to her.

Pulling out his phone, he called his mother. “Ma, it’s me.”

“Danny, where are you? It’s been hours!”

“I know. I’m still in the city. Listen, I need you to tell me where I live.”

“What?”

“With Mindy. I need you to tell me where we live,” he pleaded. Once she gave him the address, he jumped in a cab and relayed the address to the cabbie. He wanted to urge the man to drive a bit faster.

He got out of the cab and stared up at the place that was supposed to be his home. He felt no connection to it. He wondered if his wife and son were inside. How could it be possible that Danny finally had the life he’d always wanted and then he just forgot it? It wasn’t fair. He wanted to go up and knock on the door and pour out an apology, but something was holding him back.

He’d had good reasons for being upset. He felt like Mindy’d betrayed his trust. He was relying on her to tell him everything and she’d left out possibly the biggest part. How was he supposed to trust her?

He shook his head. He wasn’t on this mission for himself, he was there because he’d acted terribly and he needed to make up for it. He stood at the foot of the stairs for too long, trying to urge himself to just go up to the door. He probably looked like a stalker.

“Danny?”

He whipped around to see who said his name. He stared at an approaching woman in confusion. She smiled sweetly at him.

“You don’t remember me, but I’m Sonu, Mindy’s mother.”

Danny breathed a sigh of relief. If she was Mindy’s mother, that meant she was his mother-in-law. “I’m sorry.”

“For not remembering me? That doesn’t seem like it’s your fault,” she offered kindly. He smiled weakly at her. When he stayed silent, she kept talking. “Can I ask what you’re doing here?”

He looked back at the brownstone and then back at her. “I’m here to see Mindy. I had to ask my mother where we lived so I could find her.”

She shook her head. “Mindy isn’t here.”

Danny sighed. “Can you tell me where she is?”

“She called and told us she was going to be home late because she had a delivery.”

“So you’re taking care of…him?” Danny asked hesitantly.

Sonu looked at him and nodded. She wore a sad expression.

“I’m gonna go find Mindy. Thanks,” Danny said before turning to leave. He turned back quickly. “She’s at St. Brendan’s, right?” Her mother nodded again and he took off.

**

After navigating through the hospital, Danny found the doctor’s lounge. He paused in the doorway before entering. Mindy seemed to be deep in thought over her paperwork that sat in front of her. She didn’t even notice his presence.

“Hey,” he said simply. She jumped a bit and looked up at him. She didn’t hide the pain that crossed her face just at the sight of him. It only served to make him feel worse. He walked into the room and set the bag of food down on the table in front of her. He sat down in the chair and waited.

She looked at the bag and then looked back at him. “What’s this?”

“I heard you had a delivery. I figured you probably hadn’t eaten, so I brought you something,” he explained.

“Why?”

“Because I thought maybe it was a small way for me to make an apology.” He paused. He tried to find the words to say what he needed to say. He sat forward in the chair, willing her to look at him.

“Mindy, I’m so sorry for how I acted earlier. I think my problem is that I keep forgetting that this isn’t only happening to me. I forget that you’re in this too. And it is hard enough to realize that I forgot my wife and my work and my friends. But then I found out about this and I just couldn’t handle it. And I took that out on you, and I’m sorry.”

She folded her file shut and looked up at him. She nodded at him. He felt it was his cue to continue. “You were right. I haven’t been on your side of it. And I tend to forget that while I’m bumbling around trying to figure things out, you’re trying to pick up the pieces of what happened.”

There was a long pause between them. Mindy was being uncharacteristically quiet. He probably wouldn’t have much to say either if he’d been yelled at earlier the way she was. She seemed to be thinking over things.

“I really thought it would have come back by now,” Danny finally said. She looked up at him curiously. “I mean I know the doctor said it might take time or that it might come back in chunks or that it might not come back at all. But I never thought that would happen to me. I mean it’s been what, almost a month now? I really thought I’d have it back by now.”

“Brain injuries are tricky,” was all Mindy said.

“Look, I just want you to know, I respect your decisions,” Danny stated. Mindy looked at him, surprised. “I do know that you weren’t keeping this from me for selfish reasons. I’m sorry for accusing you of that. You make the choices that you feel are best for him and I’ll follow them.” Mindy smiled appreciatively. Danny continued. “But I want you to know, that I’m not going to just start a new life. I’m much more interested in recovering the one I already have,” he concluded, offering a small smile.

“Thank you for saying that, Danny.”

“So long as you’re still interested in helping me do that…”

She chuckled quietly to herself. “Yeah, I think I’m still good with that.”

He smiled happily at her, hoping this meant she was accepting his apology. He motioned to the bag. “Why don’t you dig in? I’m sure it won’t be that good cold…”

She opened the bag to find one of her go-to favorites. She looked at him with a glimmer of hope in her eyes. “How did you know?”

Danny shrugged. “We went there a few days ago and I remembered what you ordered.” Mindy looked back down. “When I was placing the order, the cashier asked if it was for you. I think they threw in some extra sauce or something once I said it was…”

Mindy laughed. “They do like me over there. I think it’s my frequent customer status.”

Danny chucked. “You realize that stuff is _terrible_ for you, right?”

“Gotta die of something, right?” Mindy said with a laugh.

“Oh my God. That’s a terrible attitude,” Danny replied, horrified. “Have you rubbed off on me? Do I do this too?”

“Oh of course not. You just scold me and then hide vegetables in my food.” Danny smiled at the image she created in his head.

A silence fell between them as she started eating and he weighed whether or not he should ask his next question. She looked up at him and he just decided to bite the bullet and ask. “Mindy, can I ask you a favor?”

“Sure. What’s up?”

He paused, still hesitant to ask. “Can you, you know if you feel that it’s okay,” he took a deep breath, “Can you tell me about him?”

Mindy took a deep breath and shoved the rest of her burger in her mouth. She was silent for a beat too long. It made him feel nervous. “Yeah, I guess I could do that. What do you want to know?”

“Well, what’s his name?”

“Annette didn’t tell you that? Hmm. His name is Leo.”

Danny smiled thoughtfully. “Leo? I like that.”

“I’d hope so. You picked it.”

“Yeah?” She nodded. He debated his next question. “Uh, how old is he?”

“He’s a year old. It’s been what, a month since your accident? I guess that would make him more like 13 months old.”

“Wait, I didn’t – Did I have my accident on his birthday?” Danny asked. He felt horrified at the thought of potentially scarring his family in that way.

“It wasn’t on his actual birthday. His birthday was during the middle of the week and so we spent his actual first birthday with him just the three of us,” Mindy explained. She pulled out her phone and showed him a picture of the three of them from that day.

“Ma stayed out in Staten? She didn’t try to join?” Danny asked disbelievingly, still staring at the picture in awe.

“Oh she tried. Somehow we convinced her to wait for his birthday party that weekend with the rest of the family. I still don’t really know how we managed that,” Mindy said, laughing. Her face took on a sad expression and she stopped laughing. He could tell she was reliving everything in her head.

“So what happened? Unless it’s too hard…”

She shook her head. “So we were having a party for him that Saturday and I started freaking out that we didn’t have enough ice. So you told me I should just text Morgan and have him grab some for us. But I kept insisting that it was too tacky, so I made you go.”

She paused for a long time. He could see the tears building in her eyes as she took him back through the day. “So you went out for ice and everyone started showing up. I got so mad at you because you weren’t back yet. I didn’t want to really start the festivities without you, so I kept cursing you for not being back yet.” Tears started freely flowing down her cheeks. “Then my phone rang and it was the hospital. I thought they were trying to tell me I had a delivery. It took me a long time to realize that they were saying you’d been in an accident.”

Danny moved over onto the couch. He didn’t know if he should touch her to try and comfort her or not. He just sat close to her and let her finish her story. He’d known vague details of what had happened to him, but not this much, and not from her point of view. She looked over at him, sobs shaking her body. “If I’d only listened to your advice and had Morgan grab us some ice, then you’d still be fine. You’d still be you. It was my fault.”

Danny couldn’t take it anymore. He wrapped her in his arms and started to gently rock her. “Shh. It wasn’t your fault, Mindy. You weren’t the person who hit me with your car. It wasn’t your fault.” He ran a hand through her hair, trying to calm her down. He kept repeating that it wasn’t her fault, hoping that she would take it to heart. Eventually she settled into him and he wrapped her in closer. He didn’t know if it was his former self reaching through to comfort her, but as he held her, he just wanted to make her happy again, no matter the cost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had it written and I've been loving the responses I've been getting so I figured I'd post another chapter today! Yay!  
> As always, please let me know what you think!


	8. thought I could do without it now i know I need you

Mindy sat with a sleeping Leo laying on her. She’d sent her parents out for the night. She was worried that she was relying too much on their presence. They’d been taking care of Leo for so long now. She also wanted a night alone with her little guy. He’d passed out pretty quickly though.

She felt her phone vibrate next to her and she looked to see Danny’s face filling the screen. She quickly answered the phone in a low volume, ignoring her racing heart rate.

“Hello?” Mindy answered in almost a whisper.

“Hey,” Danny replied, whispering as well. “Why are we whispering?”

Mindy chuckled. “I’m whispering because I’m holding a sleeping baby, I don’t know why you are…”

“Gotcha,” Danny answered, taking on a normal volume.

“So what’s up?” Mindy asked.

“I was calling to see if you had plans for tomorrow night.”

“Tomorrow’s Saturday,” Mindy stated.

“Yeah, I know.”

She weighed the options of her answer. “I don’t believe I have plans. I’m not on call.”

“Great! How does dinner sound?”

Mindy smiled to herself. “I guess that sounds good.”

“Good. How about I pick you up at 7:00?”

“What is this, a date?” Mindy said with a laugh.

“Yeah, why not?”

Mindy’s breath caught in her throat. She could already feel herself overanalyzing everything about this upcoming evening. “Well okay then.”

“Great. I’ll see you tomorrow night then,” Danny replied.

“Sounds good.”

“Hey, Mindy?”

“Yeah?” There was a long pause before he answered. She could hear him sigh on the other end.

He sounded a bit deflated as he answered. “Have a good evening.”

She could tell there was something else he had wanted to say but she didn’t press it. “You too, Danny.”

**

“Mindy, you look absolutely beautiful!” her mother cheered as she walked in the room.

“You have to say that, you’re my mom.”

“That’s stupid. I’ve never given you a compliment you didn’t deserve,” she assured Mindy.

Mindy looked at her mother playing with Leo. She sighed. “I shouldn’t go.”

“What?”

“Now that I’m back at work, I hardly spend any time with my son. I should stay here and be with him. I feel like I only spend a few hours a day with him,” Mindy said, reaching to pick up Leo.

Her mother stood up to face her daughter. “Mindy, you also only spend a few hours a day with your husband.” Mindy looked up with a pained look. “You haven’t been married too terribly long, so I’ll tell you a secret. Nights where you get all dressed up and go out and have a night on the town, they don’t last very long into a marriage. Believe me.” Her mother looked panicked for a second. “Your father is still out getting food right?”

Mindy laughed. “Yes. You haven’t been caught.” She hugged Leo closer to her. “I hear what you’re saying, Mom, but I just don’t feel like I’ve been a very good mother lately. Between work and trying to figure out everything with Danny, I just feel like I’m failing at everything. Jeremy keeps filling in for me, I’m still hardly ever with Leo when he’s actually awake, and Danny still doesn’t remember the last nine years.”

Her mother wrapped her and Leo in a hug. She pulled back and touched her cheek. “Mindy, there’s no perfect way to balance all this. You had a pretty good balance before Danny’s accident that’s why this feels so much harder. But Leo is doing okay. He’s a strong, sweet little boy. You’re not being a bad mother. Besides, we’re here to help.”

“I still don’t know if I should go out,” Mindy sighed.

“Sweetie, it’s one night. And Leo is probably going to fall asleep in the next hour or so anyway.”

Mindy looked at her son in her arms. She could already see the tell-tale signs of tiredness. His eyelids kept drooping like sleep wasn’t far off. He laid his head on her shoulder like she was supposed to be his pillow. She turned her head and kissed the top of his head. Her precious son deserved so much better than her right now.

“I don’t know, Mom.”

“Mindy, how much you’re worrying right now about being a good mother it means that you _are_ a good mother. A bad mother wouldn’t worry. You are also trying to be a good wife. Just go out with Danny and then tomorrow you’ll have all day with Leo. And odds are he’ll actually be awake for some of that. You’re already dressed and ready to go. It would be a waste to stay in now. That dress deserves a night on the town,” her mother added convincingly.

Mindy sighed again. “Okay.” She ran a hand up and down Leo’s back comfortingly. She thought she was probably comforting herself more than she was comforting him. The doorbell rang and Mindy turned toward the door. She handed Leo off to her mother as she went to open the door.

Danny looked like he was in awe of her. He was just staring at her. She’d seen it before. He was seemingly in awe of her beauty. It was a pretty damn good feeling to be on the receiving end of that look.

“Hi,” she greeted.

He shook his head quickly. “Hi. You look…beautiful.”

She smiled appreciatively. “Thank you.” He pulled his hand from behind his back and greeted her with a bouquet of flowers.  She laughed. “Flowers? You’re too much.” She walked back inside and he hesitantly followed. He lingered in the foyer, looking around at their home. Mindy placed the flowers in a vase and walked back to place them on the table next to him.

“They’re beautiful,” Mindy observed.

“I’m glad you like them.”

Mindy could feel a bit of awkward tension between them. It almost felt like a first date except that this was Danny and even their actual first date hadn’t been like this. She could tell he felt uncomfortable being in his own home and not recognizing it. Mindy’s mother walked in, easing the situation some.

“Oh Danny, don’t you look handsome?” she cheered.

He smiled at her nervously. “Thank you.”

“Well why don’t you get going? Everything’s taken care of here. Go have a good time!”

Mindy shook her head at her mother but walked forward and gave her a hug. “If you need anything –”

“We won’t.”

“But if you do, call me.”

“Okay,” Sonu replied, humoring Mindy. “Good to see you again, Danny.”

He nodded to her. “Good to see you too.”

**

“So is this place okay?” Danny asked nervously.

Mindy stared in the windows at the restaurant Danny picked. She turned to face him. “Who mentioned this place?”

“No one. I looked up nice restaurants and this one seemed to get good reviews. Why? Do you not like it?”

“I love this place. We’ve only been here a couple times, but the first time we came here was right after we got back together. I convinced you that we needed to go out on an actual date and you brought me here,” Mindy explained. She was lost in thought. Was it possible that part of him remembered? Was it possible this wasn’t just a random choice? She looked over at him. He was watching her. He looked almost concerned.

“Uh, should we go in?” Mindy nodded in reply. Danny guided her in with his hand on the small of her back. Maybe some things just didn’t change.

“So how is it being back at work?” Danny asked after they sat down.

“It’s okay. Sometimes I wish that I had a bit more time but, it’s good helping people. Besides, I need the money. I live an expensive lifestyle and keeping someone in the hospital for two weeks isn’t cheap,” Mindy said, trying to make the conversation light. By the look on Danny’s face, she’d made a big misstep. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.” Danny shook his head at her.

“I just wish I had something to do. It gets a bit dry just doing nothing all day. Nothing but trying to remember,” Danny replied glumly.

“It’ll come back, Danny.”

“That’s what everyone says but I don’t know if it will.” He looked up at Mindy, noting her basically hopeless expression. “I’m sorry.”

“So do you have anything big planned for tomorrow?” Mindy asked, trying to change the subject. “I mean I know you’ll have Mass, but do you have anything else exciting?”

“Eh, I probably won’t go to church. I just fixed up my old bike, so I was thinking about finally taking it out for a ride.”

“Wait, Danny, you aren’t going to go to church? What did you go today instead?” Mindy inquired.

“No. I just don’t really go anymore.” Danny paused. “I mean for one, they changed all the words. What was that about?”

Mindy laughed lightly. “Yeah, I remember a rant about that a few years back.”

“I went with Ma after I got out of the hospital, but I just didn’t feel it. I couldn’t connect to anything. I felt like a stranger there. So I haven’t been back.”

“Danny, I can’t believe you aren’t going to church. You’re the most Catholic person I know. I mean, the most Catholic person who’s had a child out of wedlock, but still.”

“It’s hard to believe in all that you used to when your life has been ripped away from you,” Danny explained with a grave look on his face. Mindy reached out and grabbed his hand. She didn’t know what to say. She hoped the gesture was enough to convey what she felt.

“Anyway, let’s talk about something happier. Um…how’s Leo?” Danny asked.

Mindy sighed and released his hand. “Pass. Next topic.”

“What? I can’t even mention him?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you about him, it’s that lately he’s been a sensitive subject for me. I just haven’t felt like I’ve been a good mother and if we start to talk about him I’m going to get upset. So, next subject, please,” Mindy answered him. She hoped that she conveyed that it wasn’t about him. She just couldn’t deal with talking about Leo yet. She still felt like she should be home with him.

Danny nodded understandingly. He chuckled. “Well, we’re a fun pair, aren’t we?”

Mindy laughed with him. “Yeah. Not downers at all.”

“Okay, so why don’t you tell me how it all happened?”

“What, the accident? We already talked about that. And how is that lighter?” Mindy asked, confused by Danny’s statement.

“No, I mean us. You’ve never really told me,” Danny clarified.

“Ohhh. Us. Well…” Mindy began. She adopted her best story telling voice as she reflected on the growth of their relationship. “During residency and starting at the practice, somehow we just weren’t on good terms. Pretty much we hated each other. Then slowly but surely, I wore you down with my friendship and my loyalty and my winning personality,” she explained with a laugh. “Then we kinda became each other’s go to people. If I had a problem or a question, I went to you. And vice versa. I think you harbored feelings for me for a while. And I always kinda had a little thing for you. And then you couldn’t keep it all to yourself anymore and you kissed me.”

Danny smiled. She could tell he was attempting to picture it all in his mind.

“We had a few missteps after that, but then we were pretty solid. And happy,” Mindy said with a sad smile.

“Missteps? Like what? Was it something I did?”

Mindy chuckled to herself. It had seemed like the end of the world when he’d left her. That pain now seemed so much simpler. “In hindsight, it was kind of on both of us. I was too worried about making this one succeed that I didn’t quite act like myself. You wanted to keep our relationship a secret at first and even though I didn’t want to, I agreed because I was too scared that it would be a deal breaker if I said no. And you were so scared about your failed marriage and your dad that you called off our relationship to try and spare our friendship.”

Danny nodded, intent to listen to their history. He raised his eyebrows, urging her to continue.

“But we didn’t stay friends. It took us a couple months to get back to that. And by the time we did, we’d both separately realized just how much we really wanted to be with each other. We both dated other people to seem like we were moving on, but we weren’t. You dated someone to feel like you were over me. I dated someone to spite you. It was great,” she said with a laugh. “But to cut the dramatics out of it, we got it together and got back together.”

“Cut out the dramatics?”

“Oh there was a hella amount of drama that involved us getting back together,” Mindy explained. Danny looked confused. She noticed the waitress’s approach. “Don’t worry. I can save that story for another time.”

**

Danny had been worried that tonight would be too awkward. He was concerned that he was laying it all on too thickly. He thought that by maybe actually acting like Mindy’s husband, something might trigger within him. It did not seem to be the case yet. He was still enjoying the night though. After a few awkward moments at the beginning, they’d started having a good time. He was captivated by the stories she told. The night seemed to get a bit lighter and cheerier.  But he could tell he was becoming more and more dependent on Mindy and it almost worried him.

She was kind and understanding and absolutely beautiful. He could see how at some point in his life he fell for her. He just wanted to be the man she wanted, but he wasn’t. He was worried that if his memories never came back, he’d never be the man she wanted. She was always so willing to drop whatever she was doing and see him. He almost felt guilty. He knew she felt bad for spending time with him and not the baby. It made him feel bad too. Was there a chance he was taking advantage of her?

They’d stood in front of the steps to brownstone for a while. Mindy was telling a story and he’d been laughing pretty hard at it. She kept laughing as she told it and he couldn’t help but admire her. Happy Mindy was a very different person than the Mindy he’d been seeing. It gave him the motivation to continue trying to be the man she needed.

Eventually she’d stopped laughing and there was a silence between them. They were standing fairly close to each other. Danny knew that if this was any other date, this would be the moment where he kissed her. He didn’t know if he was allowed to do that, though.

“I had a really good time tonight, Danny.”

That was usually his cue to go in for the kiss. He was still unsure.

“I did too, Mindy. Thanks for agreeing to go out with me.”

She started to lean in and he held his breath. Was she going for it? Instead she just wrapped her arms around him and hugged him. He didn’t hesitate before hugging her back. He couldn’t deny that holding her in his arms felt right.

Too quickly for his liking, she pulled back. She smiled happily up at him saying, “Goodnight, Danny.”

He smiled back. “Goodnight, Mindy.”

He waited till she was inside to walk away. He just wanted to follow her inside. He knew he belonged there. It was technically his home too. His son was in there. His wife was in there. Everything he’d ever wanted was in there, but he was standing on the sidewalk looking up at it longingly.

Jeremy had told him that he a great life on hold for him. He started to wonder if he had to wait for his memories to come back to take that life off of hold. Would it be possible that he could get it all back and not his memories? Did Mindy consider it a package deal? He just wanted to make her happy. He could feel himself getting sadder as he walked away from her. He wasn’t sure it was appropriate to voice it, but he was fairly sure that he was falling in love with Mindy.


	9. beautiful smile with those sad eyes

The trip back to Staten after his date was the perfect time to sort through all the thoughts going in his head. He’d been out of his coma for a while now and nothing had come back. Maybe it was time he released himself from the routine. Maybe staying out in Staten wasn’t the answer anymore.

He walked in the door and saw that Ma was still up. She looked over at him and smiled. “So how was your, um, date?”

He sat down beside her. “Uh, it was good. Food was good,” he said nonchalantly.

“And the company?” Annette prodded.

“We had a good time. Or at least I did. I don’t know about Mindy,” he added a bit insecurely.

“Oh, I’m sure she did.”

They sat watching the TV for a while. Danny needed to talk to his mother but he didn’t know how to start the conversation. Every time he worked up the urge, he pictured her getting upset and backed off. She was really engaged in whatever show it was she was watching.

The show ended and before the next episode could start, he leaned forward and picked up the remote, turning the TV off so he could have Annette’s attention. She looked over at him curiously.

He took a deep breath, hoping what he was going to say wouldn’t crush her. “Ma, you know how grateful I am for all you do for me, right? I mean I always have been. This isn’t new from my accident,” he started.

She chuckled. “Oh no. Danny, are you breaking up with me?”

“With you? How could I do that, Ma? You’re the best,” Danny assured her. “But I do have something I want to talk to you about…” She turned to face him on the couch and nodded for him to continue. “Ma, I’ve been here for a month and nothing’s come back. And as nice as it is to be here in my old home where it’s familiar, I just don’t know if that’s what I need anymore.”

Annette nodded at him. Danny could feel his palms were sweaty. He rubbed his hands off on his pants. He jumped up suddenly and started pacing. “So then what’s your plan, Daniel? Where are you going to go?”

Danny looked at Annette and then past her to a picture of him and Mindy. “Home,” he said, his tone somehow filled with both hope and fear. He cleared his throat. “Or at least my old home. I just feel like that’s where I need to be right now. Like maybe being there holds more answers for me,” he explained.

Annette sat there silently. He looked at her, mentally urging her to share her opinion. She always did. Finally she said, “Have you talked to Mindy about this? What does she think?”

Danny sighed. “No, I haven’t. I don’t know how to bring that up exactly. I don’t know how she’ll react.” Annette was silent. “If you have advice for me, now would be the time to give it, Ma.”

“I don’t really have any. This is uncharted territory for all of us.” She paused, opening her mouth and closing it again. He could tell she was figuring out how to phrase something. “Okay, here’s my advice for you. Unless you are going back and planning on staying there, don’t bring it up. If you think there’s a chance that going back won’t be the right fit, don’t tell her. I know you don’t want to hurt her, and that would be a surefire way of doing so. Only tell her if you really mean it.”

Danny stood there processing what his mother said. There wasn’t anywhere else he could imagine wanting to be as badly as he did now. But then again, a month ago, he’d crawled back home with Ma instead of going there. He sighed and nodded in agreement. “Thanks, Ma.”

**

“Mindy, you can’t be serious!”

“Yes, Mom, I’m completely serious. Go home. You guys have been here for a month. You have to have things you want to do other than hang around this damn house,” Mindy replied.

“Mindy, we haven’t minded. We’ve wanted to be here for you. This is probably one of the hardest things you’ve ever been through. Who would we be if we abandoned you now?” Her mother answered with her voice full of worry.

“It wouldn’t be abandonment if I told you to go home. Okay? And I know Dad misses Boston. The other night he fell asleep on the couch and I heard him sleep talking about the Sox.”

Her mother laughed. She reached out and gathered her daughter into a hug. “Are you sure about this?”

Mindy pulled back to look her mother in the eye. “Yes. In fact I already got you train tickets,” Mindy added, moving to pull the tickets out of her purse.

Her mother accepted and examined them. “Wait, Mindy. There’re three tickets here.”

Mindy took a deep breath. “Yeah, that’s the other part of this.” She took a long pause. “I want you to take Leo with you to Boston.”

“Mindy, no. We couldn’t.”

“Look, Mom, it doesn’t seem like Danny’s coming back anytime soon. And I feel like I’m a mess trying to figure out work and being a single mom. And I just want you to take him with you for a bit until I can stabilize my work life a bit more.”

Her mother looked concerned. “Mindy are you sure about this?”

Mindy started to cry. She knew it would happen. “Yes, I am. I want what’s best for him. And Dad can show him all around Boston and take him to all his favorite places. And meanwhile I can get my life in gear. I can stop living my life thinking today’s the day that my husband will come home. And then I can finally be the mom he needs me to be.”

Sonu wrapped Mindy in another hug. She whispered in her ear, “I’m so proud of you, Baby Girl. You are so much stronger than I think you realize.” She released Mindy and wiped away her tears. “Your father and I would be more than happy to keep Leo for a while.”

“Thank you, Mom.”

“But do you think you’ll be okay all alone in this big house?”

Mindy looked around the room. She shrugged. “I have no choice. I have to be okay.”

**

Danny was determined to find the right time to talk to Mindy about moving back. Things weren’t really going according to plan, though. The first time he tried, he walked into Mindy’s office to take her to lunch and found her crying. He hugged her to him and tried to make her tell him what was wrong. She kept insisting it was nothing, that she was just overwhelmed. He didn’t buy it. But he did buy her lunch. It wasn’t the right time though, so he spent another night at Annette’s.

The second time Danny tried, Mindy was preoccupied. He’d met her again at the hospital because she was covering a call shift for Jeremy. Even though he’d been anxious to speak with her, he wasn’t sure the hospital was the place to do it.

The third time, Danny suggested dinner again. He thought maybe in a situation similar to the one where he’d had his revelation might be perfect. Mindy claimed she’d had a really long day at work and wasn’t up for something so fancy so they ended up getting pizza and eating in her office. He was starting to get nervous that maybe there would never be the right time for him to tell her.

Each time he put it off, he started to wonder if he was doing the right thing. Should he move back or would that just make it harder on his family? But every time he saw Mindy, his doubts were gone and his need to be with her grew. Even when she seemed upset, he still felt lighter in her presence. She just had a profound effect on him.

The fourth time that Danny and Mindy got together, he was determined. They were walking through the park. Mindy was eating a pretzel and Danny was flustered, trying to find the perfect words. She was telling some story about a patient she’d had the day before. He laughed nervously. She looked over at him curiously. She could probably tell how much he was sweating.

She paused her story. “Danny, are you okay?”

He barked out another nervous laugh. “Me? I’m fine!”

She eyed him skeptically. “Are you sure? You’re sweating…like a lot.”

“It’s a hot day…”

“It’s not, actually.”

Danny stopped and sat down on one of the benches they were passing. Mindy tossed the rest of her pretzel and then slowly sat down beside him. He clasped his hands together, looking down at them. He looked up at Mindy and then back at his hands. “Mindy, there’s something I’d like to talk to you about.” He could hear her inhale quickly beside him.

“Look, whatever it is, Danny, just tell me. I’d rather just know,” Mindy assured him with a nervous shake to her voice.

“Mindy –”

She interrupted him. “Are you leaving?”

He looked up at her with a perplexed expression. “What? No!” He quickly wiped off one of his palms and grabbed her hand. “Mindy, I said I wasn’t going to do that.”      

“I know you did, but I still sometimes think about it,” Mindy admitted, hanging her head guiltily.

“That’s not at all what I wanted to talk about,” Danny assured her, squeezing her hand. She picked up her head to look at him and placed her other hand over his, squeezing it in reply. She nodded for him to go on.

Danny took a deep breath, still slightly unsure of how to start this. “So it’s been a month since I woke up and I’ve gotten nothing back. And I was thinking that maybe a change of scenery, I don’t know, might encourage something to return.”

“So you are leaving? Where are you going?” Mindy asked urgently.

“No, no, no. I was thinking I needed to leave Ma’s. Staten isn’t doing the trick,” Danny explained.

Mindy narrowed her eyes. “So what are you saying?”

Danny let go of her and turned so he wasn’t facing her. He didn’t think he could be looking at her if she was going to say no. “Look, Mindy, I know what you said about everything and I respect that, I respect your decisions,” he said, stalling out having to actually ask. He kept looking down at his hands. “But I was thinking if you’d be okay with it, that maybe I could move back. Maybe coming home is what I need.”

He kept looking down, but as the silence following his statement continued, he couldn’t keep himself from looking at Mindy. She was staring at him in complete silence. That was the first indicator that set his nerves on edge. He could see the tears pooling in her eyes. That was his second indicator.

He started stammering to cover up his nerves. “I mean I know what you said about Leo. And if it’s not a good idea, then just forget about it. I, I can just stay with Ma. Don’t worry about it.”

She reached out and grabbed his hand. She shook her head vehemently. “No, Danny. That sounds good. That, that sounds great,” she assured him, smiling through the tears running down her cheeks. He reached out and brushed them away.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes. I’m sure.”

He couldn’t stop himself. He reached his arms out and held her to him. He felt her slowly wrap her arms around him. He had been so nervous trying to tell her this; he wondered how nervous he would be when he finally worked up the courage to admit that he loved her.

They were up and walking again when Danny noticed something seemed off about Mindy. She had a conflicted look on her face. He stepped in front of her and grabbed the tops of her arms. She looked startled.

“Mindy, is something wrong?”

“No,” she said quickly. Then she looked guilty. “Okay, yeah. Um, I don’t know if this changes what you just said about coming home but,” she paused for a long time. Danny started feeling progressively worried. Finally she looked up at him. “Leo isn’t there. He’s in Boston with my parents…”

Danny couldn’t deny that getting to meet his son had excited him. But being home at all also excited him. Maybe he should mention that. “Why would that change things?”

“You really think that?” Mindy asked.

“I just wanted to come home. Whatever else happened after that was just perks.” She smiled brightly at him. They hadn’t made it much further in their walk before Danny interrupted their silence. “Wait,” Mindy looked up at him. “You sent _my_ son to _Boston_? Boston’s the worst.”

Mindy laughed. Like really laughed. He was almost worried when she couldn’t stop laughing. He looked over at her and she had tears running down her face. “Are you okay?” he asked, laughing too. Her laughter was contagious.

She stopped laughing slightly to respond. “Yeah, you just…you sound like you,” she explained.

While her comment was sweet, he couldn’t help but wonder if that meant he still wasn’t the Danny she wanted. He was trying so hard to be the man she knew, the man she loved. He hoped that if his memories never came back, she could still find a way to love him. Because he knew he had it bad for her.

She started talking again and he tried to focus on her instead of his insecurities. “Besides, Boston is cool. It gave the world me!” She concluded with a chuckle.

Danny looked at her. He could see the amusement on her face. He smiled at her. “Yeah, well then I guess it can’t be that bad.”

She looked caught off guard by his comment but smiled back anyway. As they kept walking, she linked her arm through his. Danny felt like for the first time since his accident, maybe life was actually starting to go his way. Maybe one of these days he’d figure out how to confess his love for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One last chapter before my break from school ends. I have more written, I just need to finalize it and all that. I should still have another update tomorrow.   
> Seriously, though, thank you for all the comments! It's so great and so encouraging to have people telling me what they think on every chapter!! I really really appreciate it! :)


	10. when was enough enough

Mindy was scrambling around the house, stashing things places, attempting to dust as she ran. Danny was due any minute and she’d been hurrying to make the house look presentable. The house had been spotless for Leo’s party and then Danny got hurt and Mindy stopped caring what it looked like. Her parents would tidy up a bit every now and then in the time they’d been staying with her, but by Danny’s spick and span standards, Mindy needed to do some major cleaning.

While she was pleased that Danny was finally coming home, she was also a bit terrified. Sometimes when she was with him it was uncomfortable. Is that what it would be like when they were living together? Was he planning on this being a permanent move or was this just until the next idea struck? She had a lot of questions, but she was keeping them at bay for the time being. She and her husband were finally going to be under the same roof.

Her phone was blaring music as she ran around putting things in their place. Suddenly the music stopped and her ringtone for Danny started playing. She ran back to her phone and answered it.

“Hey! I’m outside. Can you help me?” Danny asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be right there!” She decided to leave her apron on. She thought maybe it gave her more of the homemaker appearance. For whatever reason, that’s what she was striving for. He had a few bags waiting on the curb. In reality he probably didn’t need help; he just didn’t want to feel like he was intruding.

Mindy led him inside, once he got past the entry way, he was looking around in awe. He was ducking his head in each door they walked past. If it wasn’t so sad, it would have been cute.

“This is a really nice place,” Danny observed.

“Well I’d hope so. You picked it out and renovated it.”

“I did?”

Mindy turned around and appraised his expression. “Yeah. You wanted a place for us…for our future. Or something along those lines.” A smile graced Danny’s face. She kept showing him around. She figured she’d have to tell him to make himself at home a few hundred times before he actually would.

“It’s so clean.”

Mindy laughed out loud. “Thank you.” Unsure of how living arrangements were going to go, Mindy dropped his bags in a little alcove upstairs. She knew she’d have to figure that all out by the end of the night, but it was too soon for her to start thinking about it again.

Last night she’d laid in bed and wondered what him coming back really meant. Was it going to be the last night she’d slept by herself? Was he going to take on the role of husband? Or was this all a fact finding mission for him? She wanted to ask him all these things but she didn’t know how to.

**

Danny could tell Mindy didn’t feel comfortable with him being there yet. He was doing his best to just figure things out on his own. He wanted to be there. He wanted to be there with her. He hoped she knew that.

He had an idea. She had run back to the office to grab some paperwork and so he ran to the store. He got all the ingredients he needed to make a gourmet meal. He went back to the house and started throwing it all together. It was all baking away in the oven when he poured himself a glass of wine. He poured a second one because he figured she’d be home at any minute. Or he hoped she would be.

Quickly, he heard the door opening and she wandered into the kitchen. She looked bewildered. He got up from the table and handed her the glass of wine he poured for her. She set her things down and accepted it with a skeptical smile.

“What’s all this?” she asked, surveying the kitchen, sniffing the air.

“Dinner,” he replied as if it was self-explanatory.

“I can guarantee you that the supplies for this were not in this house earlier today…”

“I ran a couple of errands and then threw it all together. It was no big deal,” he added nonchalantly.

“No big deal?” she repeated.

“Yeah. I’m Italian, I like to cook.”

She smiled and shook her head at him as she heard a timer go off by the oven. He jumped and ran over to pull a pan of his baked pasta out of the oven. He moved around the kitchen with ease. He almost surprised himself with how easily he was navigating it. He must have organized it because the layout of it made complete sense to him. He looked over at her observing him. He wanted her to know he was comfortable so that maybe she would feel more at ease herself.

He scooped a helping of pasta onto each plate and set them down on the table. He grabbed the salad and bread he’d prepared as well. She was staring at it and alternatively looking at him. Nervously he said, “Well, Bon Appetit.” He took a helping on his fork and hovered in front of his mouth, waiting for her to taste it first. He hoped his need to impress her wasn’t as transparent as it seemed.

She took a bite and moaned a little. “Danny, this is delicious!”

He smiled to himself and took a bite himself. “Thank you. I was hoping you’d enjoy it.” He watched out of the corner of his eye as she ate it all with gusto. It made him happier to see her enjoy something of his.

He was finishing up when she jumped up and started cleaning off the table. “What are you doing? You don’t have to do that…” he offered.

She turned around with a smirk. “I thought that one of your rules is that the cook doesn’t do the dishes?” He felt a guilty smile cross his face.  She chuckled. “That’s what I thought,” she replied as she continued for the sink.

He brought his plate over and reached from behind her to put it in the sink. He maybe got a bit closer than he should have. He could smell her shampoo. It flooded his senses and made him unable to back away. He felt her tense up in front of him. He knew he was too close but it was where he wanted to be.

She turned her head slightly glancing back before glancing forward again. “Danny, what are you doing?”

He really debated turning her around and showing her what he was doing, but he couldn’t predict her reaction. He backed away slowly, feigning innocence. “I was just putting my plate in the sink,” he responded with a shrug. He could see the disbelief on her face but she never said anything; she just turned back to the dishes.

He knew that living with her was going to be harder than he’d imagined due to his feelings. He wasn’t sure if she was ready to hear it all, so he kept it to himself. Simply being in her presence would have to be enough for him. And as he watched her hum to herself as she scrubbed at the dishes, he thought that maybe it would be enough. For now.

**

“Babe, you realize it’s 2:00 am, right? Maybe you should put away the paperwork and come to bed…”

Mindy didn’t even look up from her work. “Danny, I can’t. I need to get this finished. I’m so behind at work. If it’s so late, what are you doing up?”

“Well someone started crying, so I got up and changed his dirty diaper and calmed him back down,” Danny explained. She finally looked up and saw Danny leaning against the door frame, holding their son.

Mindy was confused. “What are you doing with him?”

“What do you mean? He’s my son…”

“Yeah, but you forgot about him.”

“What? How could I forget about my best guy?” Danny asked, almost talking more to Leo. He looked over at Mindy. “Babe, are you okay?”

She looked around the room. Something felt off. Danny walked closer to her. He set Leo down in the playpen they’d set up in the office and continued to approach Mindy.

“Min? Tell me what’s wrong,” he urged, cupping her head in his hands.

“You had an accident. You forgot. You forgot us,” she explained in a small voice.

“Forgot? Mindy, I could never forget my family. What are you talking about? I was never in an accident,” Danny asked with a concerned tone. He looked at her like she was crazy. She kept shaking her head at him. “Mindy? Mindy?!”

She shook herself awake. “Mindy, hey wake up,” Danny nearly crooned. She jumped back at the sight of him so close to her. He jumped a bit himself. “Hey, you fell asleep doing paperwork,” he explained.

She straightened herself in her chair and looked around at her surroundings. She noticed the empty playpen. She wiped drool from her mouth. She still felt the feeling of confusion from her dream. Danny was still standing over her. “I was about to head to bed so I thought I’d check in on you,” he added softly. She nodded at him. “I figured you wouldn’t want to sleep all night hunched over a desk. That would be pretty uncomfortable.”

She looked up at him. It was always so hard for her to be woken up from dreams. Especially ones that felt real. “Yeah, that would be uncomfortable.” She looked around the room and for once the couch on the other side of the room was cleared. She motioned to it. “I’ll probably just make up the couch anyway.”

Danny looked pained. “Don’t do that because of me. When I asked to come back, I didn’t do so thinking that I’d put you out. I want you to go about your normal life, just, you know, with me here too.” He paused. He looked like he was fighting with himself. “Look, if it’s too weird or too soon or whatever to have me in there, then just tell me. I can sleep on the couch. You’re the one who has to work.”

She stared at him. She didn’t know what it would be like to sleep in her bed with her husband who wasn’t really her husband. But if she was honest with herself, it had been getting lonely sleeping by herself. And she definitely didn’t want to sleep on the couch. He’d made a big step by asking to come home. Maybe this is what they both needed. It was just sleeping, right?

She nodded at him. “If it’s weird, we can figure it out tomorrow,” she offered. He smiled appreciatively.

She had brushed her teeth and was completely ready for bed. She looked herself in the mirror. The guy in her bed was not a stranger; he’s her husband. She may have to repeat that to herself for a while, but at least for now it seemed to be working. It was just sleeping. She’d slept in beds with many people, both platonically and romantically. She could do this.

She walked out of the bathroom and stopped in her tracks. Danny was sitting in bed, on the left side, looking at something on his phone. He looked up at her and saw her standing there. He looked around the room and then back at her. “Is something wrong?”

She shook her head quickly. “It’s nothing.”

He evaluated her. “No, it’s something. What?”

“It’s just that you’re on my side of the bed. But it’s fine. I’ll just sleep on the right,” she conceded, walking in that direction.

“Nope!” Danny exclaimed. He threw the sheets back and wiggled over to the right side of the bed. It looked pretty silly.

“Danny, it’s fine,” Mindy said.

“No it’s not. That’s your side of the bed,” he replied, climbing under the covers of the right side and adjusting the pillow. She stood there for a second, staring at the scene before her. Danny threw his hands up. “See? Easy as that.” She shook her head and walked to climb into the bed.  “So I conceded my side of the bed to you? Interesting…” Danny said with a laugh.

So many conflicting feelings were coursing through Mindy. She didn’t know how to react. She flicked her lamp off and climbed down further under the covers. She laid with her back to him. She could feel him getting comfortable on the other side of the bed. Mindy was hoping she would just fall asleep quickly.

She felt Danny move again seconds before she felt his hand squeeze her arm. She tensed up quickly. “Goodnight, Mindy.”

She smiled to herself. She moved her other arm out from beneath her and touched his hand. “Goodnight, Danny.” He let go of her arm and she could feel the absence of his hand. Now that she had Danny back in their bed, she wanted nothing more than to roll over and snuggle into him. Instead she stayed on her side and prayed that urge would pass. But the next morning when she woke up in his arms, she knew subconscious Mindy was not quite as strong.


	11. so tear me apart and do it again tomorrow

For reasons he couldn’t rationally explain, Danny had had the best night of sleep since he’d come out of his coma. It didn’t hurt that when he woke up, he found Mindy still asleep in his arms. Is this what his life used to be like? Waking up with the woman he loved? He didn’t want to move in case she woke up. Hell, he didn’t want to breathe. He knew it would all end once she woke up. She’d look at him with the same protected expression that she’d worn every time he’d seen her.

There had been only a couple times when he’d seen the protection falter. There was a brief moment during their date when she was telling some story and she was just happy. He’d recognized that her shields had dropped a bit. After the end of her story, the shield came right back. Another time was when he’d made his Boston comment and she laughed hysterically. He yearned to hear her laugh more.

There was a moment, albeit a short one, before Mindy woke up where she snuggled in closer to him. He imagined that under normal circumstances, that was what being at peace would be like. He could tell the moment she woke up. She pulled her head back first and then her whole body tensed. He closed his eyes quickly so she would think he was still asleep. He felt her gently pull her body away from his. He could acutely feel her absence.

He got up quickly and ran downstairs. He decided that he would make her breakfast. He was flipping pancakes by the time she came down to the kitchen. She looked shell shocked.

“Two meals in a row? That’s too much, Danny,” she said.

“You’re going to work. You need a good meal to start your day right,” he answered quickly. Really he just wanted to prove his worth around the house and currently cooking was his only idea.

She shook her head humoredly at him. “That is what you always say. I can’t count how many times I’ve gotten the “Bearclaws aren’t a substantial enough breakfast” speech,” she replied with a laugh, dragging a plate of pancakes to her.

“They definitely aren’t substantial enough,” Danny agreed sitting down at the table with her. “So how busy should your day be today?”

Mindy shrugged. “I don’t think it should be any crazier than normal.”

Danny nodded, considering what that actually meant. “So would you want lunch?”

“What are you going for the trifecta? Want to make all my meals for me?” She asked, laughing.

Danny laughed weakly. “No, I just…” he debated how much he really wanted to reveal to her. “I just thought I’d ask, I guess.”

She looked up from her plate with a concerned glance. “Did I say something wrong?” She reached across the table and grabbed his hand. “Hey, lunch sounds great.”

“Eh, if you’re too busy, then I’ll just –”

She squeezed his hand. “I shouldn’t be too busy. I’d love to have lunch with you.” She smiled at him and he returned it. She turned back to her food before checking the time. “Oh crap! I’m running late.” She jumped up from the table with her plate and glass.

“Just leave your dishes. I’ll get them,” Danny said to her.

She put them back on the table and ran for her bag and her coat. She was in a flurry around the room, grabbing files and things she needed. She ran back toward him. “Thanks, Babe. I’ll see you later.” She leaned down and kissed him quickly on the cheek, and then took off toward the door. She wasn’t out of the kitchen when he saw her freeze for a second and then keep running.

He was shaken out of his daze by his phone ringing. He looked at it and saw his brother’s face fill the screen. “Hey Richie!” He was chatting happily with his brother for a long time until he felt his phone vibrate against his ear. He checked it and saw a text from Mindy.

**Hey. I just got paged for a delivery. Don’t worry about lunch.**

He couldn’t deny that he felt crushing disappointment at the thought of not getting to see her. There was even a chance that if it went too long he wouldn’t get to see her tonight either.

“Danny, you still there?” Richie asked.

Danny shook his head quickly. “Yeah, sorry. I just got distracted. Please go on!” He felt another text come in. It was also from Mindy.

**This should not encourage you to make dinner. You’re making it impossible to even the score. There’s a casserole in the freezer from your mom. If I get done early enough, I’ll grab us some ice cream! See you later!**

Danny couldn’t help but smile. Now that he lived here, he could still see her. He tried to focus back on his conversation with Richie, but it was getting increasingly harder. He realized he hadn’t responded to Mindy.

**Sounds like a plan. Good luck with your delivery!**

**

Mindy plunked her bowl down on the table in front of the couch. “Ahh, ice cream for dinner. I could never regret that.”

Danny flashed her a bemused grin. “You really should though…”

Mindy stretched her foot out and kicked him lightly in the side. “Hey, I worked for a very long time today. And I let you watch whatever stupid show you wanted to watch. Maybe you shouldn’t criticize my eating habits.”

Danny grabbed her foot to keep her from kicking him. “I was already watching something. What, were you just going to change it right in the middle?”

She laughed. “You’d be surprised…”

Danny shook his head at her with a smirk. He was still holding her foot. She had turned back to watch the TV. He just held on to her ankle where it rested across his lap. It was like his lifeline, his only real physical connection to her. Eventually she stretched further on the couch and her other foot joined it. She was basically stretched across him. It seemed like a whole new level of comfort she was allowing. He was surprised how comfortable he was in that moment. She seemed to be too. Maybe this is what their lives were normally like, relaxing after a long day of work.

“So Richie called me today…” Danny started.

Mindy turned to look at him. “Yeah? How’s he doing?”

“Good, I guess. He really only knows how to talk about himself.”

“Yeah, but hasn’t he always kinda been like that?”

Danny shrugged with a laugh. “Yeah, good point. He said something interesting though…”

Mindy sat up suddenly. “Oh God. Nine years ago did you not know Richie was gay?” She had a very concerned look on her face.

He shook his head at her. “No, of course I knew then. That’s not what he said.”

Mindy laid back. “Oh thank God. That would have been uncomfortable.”

“No,” Danny paused. “He said I should come stay with him down in Florida.”

Mindy looked shocked for a minute before she controlled her expression. “Hmmm. And what did you say?”

He could feel her slowly dragging her feet back. He caught a hold of her feet and pretended to just be touching them absentmindedly. “I told him I had enough going on here. Now isn’t really a great time to go to Florida.” He could feel her relax some.

“Really? Even without work?”

He stared at her for longer than he should have. “Wouldn’t you think I have things keeping me here?”

She stared back at him intently. “That’s not really my question to answer.”

Danny held eye contact with her. Neither of them had looked away yet. “Mindy, if I wanted to leave, I would have done it a while ago.”

Several different emotions crossed her face. The one that was the most prevalent was happiness. She pulled her feet out of his lap and curled into him. He threw his arm around her and they cuddled as they turned their attention back to whatever they were watching.

**

“Peter, why do I feel like I’m cheating on my husband?” Mindy whined into the phone.

“I don’t know. He is in fact your husband, Mindy,” Peter reminded her.

“Yeah, I realize that. I don’t know what it is. It’s like the more time I spend with him, I feel the closeness coming back. But he’s still not _Danny_. And that for whatever reason makes me feel like I’m cheating.”

“You aren’t though. That’s a stupid way to think.”

“Gee, thanks, Peter. I think I’m cured,” Mindy replied sarcastically.

“Okay, have you done anything with him?”

“Yeah, I’ve spent the last five days with him.”

“No, I mean like anything romantic. You know? Cuddling on the couch doesn’t count. You did that with Danny before you were actually a couple anyway,” Peter explained. He paused. “Have you guys kissed?”

Mindy was silent. “No.”

“Well maybe you should. You’re trying to recapture your marriage. It got put on hold temporarily. Maybe it’s time you two stop acting like roommates who for whatever reason share a bed, and start acting like the couple that you are.”

Mindy sighed. “I wouldn’t even know how to do that right now, Peter.”

“Okay, maybe you should recreate your first kiss…” Peter offered.

“We were in the back of a plane. Next.”

Peter sighed dramatically. “Look, Mindy, I don’t want to do all the work for you, okay. You’re gonna have to bite the bullet and just do something.” Mindy was silent, thinking through what he was saying. “It’s not cheating, Mindy. He’s still your husband.” Mindy still didn’t respond. Peter continued. “Mindy, the Danny you know is still in there somewhere. Just remember that.”


	12. isn't this love insane

Mindy walked in to the familiar aroma of Danny’s cooking. She wasn’t surprised that, yet again, he’d cooked. He basically cooked at least one meal for her every day. She was becoming a fan of the treatment. She set her things down and took off her coat before she strode into the kitchen.

“Hey!” she cheered.

He turned around from the stove and smiled brilliantly at her. “Hey, Mindy!” He turned around to the island and presented her with a glass of wine.

She sighed. “It’s like you knew the day I had.”

“Wanna talk about it?” he asked as he turned back to the stove.

“I guess it was okay. It was just busy as hell. I have the Mount Everest of paperwork waiting for me on my desk,” she explained.

“Yeah, but doesn’t busy mean money?” he asked with a smirk.

“That is true. Maybe after I finish all my paperwork I’ll go buy that dress I’ve been putting off buying,” she said, thinking of how satisfying it would be to buy something new.

Danny chuckled. “I’d say by the looks of our closet, you don’t really put off buying things for very long…”

“Hey! Retail therapy is a real thing, Danny,” She exclaimed.

He turned around laughing as he started putting food on two plates. “Yeah, I’m sure it is…”

“If you had not prepared what smells like a delicious meal, I would be very angry with you,” Mindy replied, eyeing the food he’d made.

They sat at the island eating and drinking plenty of wine, laughing as they traded ridiculous stories from their med school days. In the days they’d been living together, they found their go to subjects that wouldn’t lead to any uncomfortable discussions. These subjects were usually used most during dinner.

Danny got up to start bussing the table. Mindy followed suit. Danny stopped and turned to her. “There’s something wrong with the dishwasher, so I’ll just take care of them.”

Mindy shrugged at him. “I can help. It’s no big deal.”

It didn’t take them long to wash, dry, and store all the dishes they’d used. Danny threw his dishtowel back on the counter and picked up his wine glass, taking a sip from it. “That was pretty quick. We make a good team,” he said admiringly.

Mindy stood close to him against the island. She could feel herself grinning. “Yeah. But then again, we always did.” She turned to pick up her wine glass and realized just how close Danny was to her when she bumped into him.

He was staring down at her with an intense look in his eyes. Neither of them were breaking eye contact. She kept hearing Peter’s words in her head. Maybe this was her moment to kiss him and see what happened. Would he be receptive? Was it too soon? Her mind was racing. She felt one of his fingers brush against hers. She finally broke eye contact to look down at their slowly intertwining hands. She looked back up right as he was leaning in.

Somehow he still caught her by surprise. He pressed his lips gently against hers. It was nothing like their first kiss. It was soft and gentle and he pulled away quickly. “Mindy, I’m s – ”

She yanked his head back to hers, meeting his lips with hers. She wrapped her arms tightly around him. He took no time to respond, kissing her deeply and pulling her in close. He walked her backwards until her back was flat against the fridge. She moaned as she hit it. She ran her tongue along his bottom lip and he opened his mouth for her. Their tongues danced together as he bent down and grabbed both her legs, dragging her up the fridge. She broke away and started kissing his neck, her hands running through his hair. He groaned, attempting to pull her even tighter against him. She found her way back to his mouth and kissed him deeply again.

They were startled apart by the sound of Mindy’s ringtone. She looked at him, his eyes dark. He stared back at her. “Don’t answer it,” he pleaded, his voice thick with desire.

She recognized the ringtone as her mother’s. She couldn’t risk not answering in case something was wrong. She patted his shoulders to make him let her down. She ran over to catch her phone before it went to voicemail. “Hello?”

She walked out of the room to talk. She heard her mother on the other line. “Mindy, how’s it going?”

She sighed. “Fine. What’s up, Mom?”

“Oh nothing, I’m just checking in. Your father just went out for a walk with Leo, so I just thought I’d give you a call.”

Mindy threw a look over her shoulder and went upstairs to the bedroom. “Mom, you never cheated on Dad, right?”

“Of course not!” her mother replied sounding scandalized. “And I did not raise my daughter to cheat on her amnesiac husband!”

“I’m not cheating, Mom,” Mindy defended with a huff. “It just feels like it.”

She could hear her mother sigh. “Mindy, I’m going to be frank with you. You know I love you, but what I’m going to say might be tough to hear. Okay?”

“Okay…” Mindy replied, unsure of what her mother was going to say.

“When Danny was in the hospital, all you wanted was for him to wake up. And then he woke up and he didn’t remember being married to you. And all you wanted was for him to come home so you could show him the life you had together. But he went to Annette’s. And now he’s home. You got what you wanted, Mindy. I know that you just want your husband to have his memories back. But that may not happen. But the man you married, the father of your child, he’s still alive. He’s living in your house just like he used to. You still love that man. Maybe it’s time you remember that and let him love you back. You can’t always get everything you want in life, Mindy, but you can work with what you’ve got.”

Mindy felt tears streaming down her face. She didn’t even know how to reply. Her mother was right. All she’d wanted was for Danny to come home and now he was. She had to face the fact that this Danny was maybe the person she’d spend the rest of her life with. She didn’t think the pain would ever completely disappear if she tried to reference something from the last nine years and he couldn’t remember.

But she did think that she could do it. He was still basically the same man. He still guided her places with his hand on her back. He still laughed at all the stupid things she said. He still cooked her dinner happily. And if what had just happened in the kitchen was any indication, there was clearly still a spark.

After she hung up with mother, she looked up at the nightstand and saw the picture of the two of them. She grabbed it and stared at it. They looked so happy. She felt the tears continue to stream as she said goodbye to the life she used to have. Maybe once she’d done that, she could move forward.

She whipped her head around when she thought she heard the door close but no one was there. Danny was probably still downstairs wondering what the hell had happened. She didn’t quite know how their next conversation would go. Was there a chance she could avoid it? She was Mindy Lahiri, and she was pretty good at avoiding uncomfortable things that should probably be addressed.

**

“Oh my God! You two kissed?!” Jeremy exclaimed giddily.

“What are you? Twelve years old?” Danny asked.

“Well I’m sorry for being excited for my friends,” Jeremy replied. “So then what happened?”

“You’re kind of a pervert aren’t you?”

“Oh my God, you guys had sex?”

Danny stared at him quizzically. “What? No. We didn’t have sex.”

“Damn.”

“No, her phone rang and she went to answer it and left the room. I didn’t know where she went so I went up into our room and I found her crying over a picture of us.” Jeremy looked confused. “So I crept out of there and went back downstairs and tried to seem like everything was normal.”

“But this is exciting. You kissed!” Jeremy insisted.

“Yeah, except afterwards, I basically confirmed everything I’ve been thinking for the past seven weeks. I’m never gonna be enough for Mindy. She doesn’t want _me_.”

“Danny, that’s not true.”

“Jeremy, I think it is. Why else would she be crying after we kissed? It’s because she realized that I’m not and never will be enough. At least not without my memories…”

Jeremy shook his head. “No. I refuse to believe that. You don’t know what happened on that phone call. Maybe she was crying because of that,” Jeremy swore.

“I just want to be enough for her,” Danny said quietly.

“Oh my God,” Jeremy exclaimed.

“What?”

“You love her. You’re in love with her. That’s why you’re so upset,” Jeremy explained. Danny just stared at him. He opened his mouth to negate his claims but he couldn’t. It was all true. “Danny, have you told her?”

“No.”

“Why the hell not?” Jeremy yelled.

“Because it doesn’t change anything. Loving her doesn’t magically solve our situation. In fact it pretty much makes it harder.”

“Do you think that maybe talking to her would help?”

“How would talking about it help?”

“It’s nice to know that memories don’t shape people all that much. Even without your memories of the last nine years you’re still a bloody idiot!” Jeremy retorted.

“Hey!” Danny yelled.

There was a knock at the door and Mindy stuck her head in. Danny was startled at the sight of her and she looked equally jarred to see him. “Danny, I didn’t know you were here.”

“Oh he and I were just chatting. You know how friends do that…” Jeremy answered, sensing Danny's silence.

She nodded her head unsurely. “Sure. Um, Jeremy, do you think you could cover my call shift on Thursday?”

“We can work out a trade of some sort, sure.”

“Thanks,” Mindy replied before quickly leaving.

“See how quickly she left? You want proof that I’m right?” Danny pointed out.

“You aren’t right yet. What are you going to do about this?”

Danny paused. “Well Richie keeps asking me to come down to Florida. So, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Jeremy leaned forward. “Wait, you’re running away?”

“I’m not running away. If anything, I’m giving Mindy the space she probably already wants.”

“She wants you, you idiot! You can’t do this,” Jeremy insisted, his voice getting quite loud.

“Haven’t you been listening? She doesn’t want me!”

Jeremy shook his head. “But you love her. You can’t just leave.”

Danny sighed. “I have no choice.”

“Promise me this,” Jeremy asked, “Promise me that you’ll tell her about your feelings and then decide from there.”

Danny nodded in reply.

**

Mindy was greeted by Danny eerily quickly as she walked in the door. She could tell that something was up. He had a serious look on his face. Lately when she’d come home he’d looked happier.

“Hey. What’s up?”

“Mindy, we need to talk,” he said gravely.

He was right. They couldn’t avoid talking about what had happened between them. She was about to start talking when she noticed the suitcase by the stairs. She looked up at him with a mixture of confusion and pain.

“Danny, what’s going on? Whose suitcase is that?” she asked, pointing to it.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Mine.”

She stepped back quickly. “What? Where are you going?”

“I, uh, decided to go see Richie in Florida. You remember me mentioning that.”

She charged him. “No. I remember you insisting that you weren’t going to go. That you had enough here.”

“Well I guess I was wrong,” Danny replied quietly. Mindy gasped softly, tears filling her eyes. He reached for her and she backed away. “Mindy, that came out wrong. That’s not what I meant.”

“No, Danny, I think that’s exactly what you meant. I’ve been waiting for this moment. I knew it was coming no matter how many times you swore that you weren’t going to leave, I knew, I _knew_ that you would.”

“Mindy, I’m leaving for you,” Danny attempted to explain.

“What the hell does that mean?” She nearly shrieked.

He closed his eyes. The pain on his face was obvious. “I know I’m not what you want. Or rather who you want.”

“Danny that’s not – ”

He interrupted her. “Mindy, you don’t have to lie to me. I know what happened last night. Okay? It was pretty obvious.”

“Apparently not. Maybe if you just freaking talked to me instead of running you could maybe understand what was actually happening,” she yelled.

“I can’t do this anymore. I can’t pretend that I’m supposed to be here when it’s so clear that I’m not.” She could see the tears in his eyes that he was fighting. “So I’m going to go stay with Richie for a while. Maybe when I come back things will be different. At least this way you can go get Leo from your parents.”

He grabbed his suitcase and tried to walk past her. She jumped in front of him. “Danny please don’t do this. Please don’t leave. Let’s just talk about this,” Mindy pleaded.

“Mindy there’s nothing to talk about.”

“What do you mean? There’s so much to talk about. You never even talked to me about this before you just decided to leave!” she yelled at him, ignoring their close proximity.

“Mindy, I can’t do this. I can’t hold you back anymore. All I’m doing is bringing you down and upsetting you. And I can’t take it anymore. Please move. I have a flight in two hours and I’m pretty sure I see my cab waiting outside.”

The tears ran down her face and she didn’t even try to wipe them away. In all the times she’d imagined him walking out for a new, easier life, she’d never imagined it would hurt this much. He walked around her and out the door. She couldn’t even turn around to watch him leave. She couldn’t think about how she’d come home with the intention of trying to start things over with him. She heard the door close behind her and her legs gave out as she crumbled to the floor in tears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, thank you for all the comments and kudos! I'm glad that you seem to be enjoying this!! :)


	13. went from everything to nothing, no 'we' anymore

Mindy was not above taking a Heartache Day. But when she finally dragged herself into work, she didn’t realize just how hard it would be. Danny’s office was a constant reminder of everything she’d lost. Plus none of her coworkers knew how to not be nosy.

Jeremy strolled into her office, completely ignoring her obvious mood. He seemed almost giddy. “So how did things end up going with Danny?” He practically sing-songed.

“Excuse me?” Mindy asked, confused and angry.

“Well when he was in talking to me two days ago, I encouraged him to do something important…”

Mindy stood up. “Wait, you _knew_ about that?”

“Yes…” Jeremy replied timidly. “Though I pictured you being more excited…”

“You pictured me being excited for Danny to tell me he was going to Florida?!” She nearly shrieked.

“Wait, what? He did that? He didn’t tell you anything else?” Mindy shook her head. “Damn it, Danny.”

“You know when I came into your office and asked you to switch call shifts with me on Thursday?” Jeremy nodded. “It was because I was planning on going up to Boston that day to get Leo. I was planning on finally having my family back under the same roof, finally back together. And then Danny left. He _left_.”

Jeremy walked behind Mindy’s desk and wrapped her in a hug. She cried into his shoulder. “I just want him. Whether it’s new Danny or old Danny, I just want my husband. Is that too much to ask?”

Jeremy rubbed her back soothingly. “It shouldn’t be, Mindy. I’m so sorry.”

**

Danny had been in sunny Florida for a week and he didn’t really understand how people lived there. It was too damn humid. He’d been having a good time with Richie. He’d had no problems taking Danny back through the last nine years of his life. Richie was so chatty he’d probably done so faster than Mindy. And that seemed like an achievement.

Mindy. That was Danny’s problem. He couldn’t stop thinking about Mindy. He was starting to feel bad about the way he left things. He couldn’t deny that the look on her face as he left was eating at him. He’d typed out a text to send to her at least twenty times a day and each time he’d deleted it. He was pretty sure that every time he started a conversation with Richie it somehow came back around to Mindy.

He wanted to call her, but he didn’t know what he would say. He wanted to go back there, but he didn’t know how she would react. He wanted to do so many things for her to make up for how he acted, but all he did was stay in Florida day after day, bemoaning his actions. Maybe he was wrong and they could have worked out. Maybe the trick was that he needed to stop doubting himself.

He was thinking so hard about life back in New York that he missed his brother announcing his serve and got hit square in the face with a tennis ball. He fell to the ground hard. “Hey, man! How about a little warning?!”

Richie ran over to Danny’s side. “I gave you plenty of warning. Your head was in the clouds!”

Danny shook his head. “Sorry.” He let Richie pull him up. “This was a stupid idea anyway. You’re obviously going to kill me at this. It would be like if I challenged you to making a proper delivery. I’d obviously have the upper hand there.”

Richie laughed. “It’s okay, it gives me a bit of an ego boost.”

“Yeah, yeah. You know what? I’m gonna serve now. Watch out!”

After they finished their game, they headed back to Richie’s apartment. Richie was driving and Danny was lost in his mind, as per usual. He looked over when Richie drove past his apartment. “Hey, you missed your turn. That was your building…”

“We aren’t going back to my apartment, Danny.”

Danny looked at his brother inquisitively. “Well then where are we going?”

Richie stopped at a red light and looked over at Danny. “We’re going to the airport. Don’t be mad.”

“What? No. Richie, just go home.”

“No, Danny. _You’re_ going home. I can’t stand to see you like this. You’re obviously miserable. You’re always staring at your phone like you’re daring it to ring. You always seem to be lost in thought. Basically every conversation we have turns into some story about Mindy. Danny, it’s great having you here, but this isn’t where you need to be.”

“I can’t go back. I, I said some things and I just can’t. Richie I don’t think I’m ready.”

“Well you don’t have much of a choice. I already bought you a ticket. Your flight leaves in a couple of hours. Your suitcase is in the trunk _and_ I picked you out a very nice return outfit.”

“You already bought me a ticket?” Danny asked skeptically.

“Yeah,” Richie confirmed. “I mean I used your credit card, but I did the purchasing.” Danny nodded. Of course that was how it happened.

Richie pulled up at the airport and grabbed Danny’s bag. Danny stared at him with an expression akin to a petulant child. “I still don’t know why you’re doing this.”

“Because it’s what’s best for you, Danny. And that’s what family does for each other,” Richie explained.

“Yeah, I get that. That’s why I came here,” Danny insisted.

“That’s bull and you know it. You love her, Danny. Stop being scared of it and just tell her.”

Danny looked at him skeptically. “When did you get so damn wise?”

Richie laughed and pulled Danny in for a hug. “I don’t know. I’ve got a pretty great big brother.” Danny pulled back and smiled at his brother. Richie slapped him on the arm. “Now go get her.”

**

The plane had taken off and they were halfway to New York. Danny still had no clue what he was going to say to Mindy. He needed to apologize. But he needed to prove to her how much he loved her. He contemplated asking the woman next to him for advice. But he didn’t know how to explain his situation simply.

There was nothing simple about it. He honestly still wasn’t convinced either way. He knew he loved Mindy and a part of him really thought that she loved him too. But he could never be completely sure that her feelings were for him and not for the Danny she wanted him to be.

He knew what he needed to do. He needed to prove to her that he was enough. He needed to be the best husband he could be, the best father he could be, and show her that he belonged there. He needed to show her that he was still a part of their family. He started scribbling down a speech to give to her on his little napkins. He could feel the determination coursing through him.

He heard a ding and looked up to see the seatbelt light had been turned back on. The captain came over the speaker. “Attention, Folks, we seem to be coming up on some nasty weather. It may get a bit shaky for a while. So please stay in your seats until I turn the seatbelt sign off. Thanks.”

Danny could feel his anxiety level rise. He hated turbulence. Hell, he hated flying. He preferred to be in control and in the skies he just wasn’t. With the first shake, his heart started to beat quicker. The plane continued to shake violently. Babies were crying, children were screaming, the occasional adult passenger was cursing. He swore the plane was going down. He wished Mindy were with him. Not so that she could die too, but so that she could comfort him. There was a particularly nasty shake and he instinctively clamped his hand down on the arm rest. The woman next to him touched his arm lightly.

“Are you okay?”

He stared at her and then nodded as the plane continued to shake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All you people who keep leaving comments are wonderful people. I seriously love hearing your feedback!! The comments and kudos are really amazing, guys, so thanks!!


	14. I'll let you drive me crazy for another day

Mindy kept flipping channels. Nothing good enough was on. Well, nothing was on that was captivating enough to take her mind off her current predicament. She was happy to have Leo home, but she missed Danny like crazy. She hadn’t spoken to him in over a week. The last time they hadn’t spoken in this long was when he was in his coma. Before that had to be when she was in Haiti. Even when they were broken up, they still didn’t go this long without seeing or talking to each other. She’d almost called him several times. She had no clue what she would say to him though.  

She walked back up to the nursery to check on Leo. She hadn’t heard anything on the baby monitor, but she just wanted to look at him. She’d let him stay in Boston for too long. The last week of it being just the two of them had actually been pretty fun. She’d missed her baby so much. She was finally ready to be the single mom she needed to be. She looked at him sleeping soundly in his crib. If he was all she had in life, she was still doing pretty damn well.

She eventually wandered back downstairs so she didn’t wake him up. She was contemplating the merits of the bottle of wine in her hand when she heard a knock at the door. She looked at the clock. She had no idea who would be coming by at 10:30. She thought about not answering. The longer she stayed in the kitchen, the more insistent the knocks became. She couldn’t ignore it any longer.

Mindy walked to the door and threw it open, a pithy comment about the hour frozen on her lips, as she took in a panting Danny standing on the stairs. “Danny? What are you doing here?”

“I was in Florida and I was miserable. And everyone could tell,” he started to explain.

“Well, you always did hate places that weren’t New York…” she remembered.

He stepped closer to the door. “Yeah, but that’s not why. I was miserable because I wasn’t with you.” He paused to let the statement hang. She could feel her chest tightening. She wasn’t sure this was real.

He stepped closer again. He looked at her intensely. “Mindy Lahiri, I love you.” She couldn’t breathe. She felt tears in her eyes and she knew she had a doofy smile on her face. “I’ve loved you for a while now. But I did what I do best. I ran. I got scared.  I thought that you wouldn’t want me and so I left. And I’m so sorry for that. I should have stayed. I should have listened to you. I don’t know exactly when it was that I fell in love with you. But I think it started when you were chasing after me in your heels, unwilling to let me go.”

Mindy laughed as tears spilled down her cheeks. Danny reached over and brushed them away. “I’m sorry that I was so stupid. I should have just told you when I knew. I should have told you when I asked to move back in, because that was _why_ I wanted to move back.” He reached up and cupped her face in his hands. “I love you so much.”

She nodded and wrapped him tightly in a hug. “I love you too, Danny.” She pulled back and looked at him. She couldn’t help but grin smugly. “So you were really miserable without me?”

Danny laughed and nodded. “Yeah. Completely.” He reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear. “And then on the flight back we flew through this crazy storm. And there was so much turbulence. And I don’t really know what happened, but it came back, Min. It got it back.”

She had been staring dreamily at him and was shaken out of her daze. “Wait, what? You got what back?”

Danny seemed choked up. “My memories. The last nine years. It all came back.”

She clapped her hand to her mouth. She couldn’t stop crying. “Wait, so you remember?”

He nodded, his own tears starting to fall. “Mindy, I remember everything. I remember working at the office, and slowly becoming friends, and kissing you on the back of the plane, and making a million mistakes that honestly, I was okay forgetting.  And I remember buying this house, and proposing, and when Leo was born, and our wedding. I remember it all, Min. I remember.”

Mindy finally caught her breath. It didn’t seem like it was really happening. “You remember.” It was a question and a statement. He nodded happily at her. She wiped her tears quickly before reaching out and slapping him hard on his chest. “Why the _hell_ wouldn’t you lead with that?”

“Ow!” He exclaimed, rubbing his chest where she hit him. He looked at her intently, reaching back up to cup her face in his hands. “I didn’t lead with it because I thought that you deserved to know that even without our friendship to fall back on and without remembering our history, I still fell in love with you, Mindy. I still fell just as hard.”

That was when the dam broke. Her tears flowed as she threw herself at him, crushing her lips to his, kissing him frantically. He caught her around the waist and clung to her, moving his lips with hers. She broke apart and kissed all over his face, pausing to slowly kiss his forehead. She held his head in her hands and pulled back and looked at him. His smile was so wide and she was positive that she matched him.

“Danny, I love you. And you should know, I would have wanted you here, memories or not.” He leaned in and kissed her soundly. She broke away and grabbed one of his hands, dragging him in off the porch.

The door slammed shut behind him as he dragged her back to him. He kissed her hungrily and she matched his passion. She ran her fingers through his hair as he held her as close as possible to him. He started peppering kisses along her jaw. In between each kiss he kept muttering “I love you” into her skin. She felt like she was melting under his kisses.

Suddenly a cry broke through the room. Mindy looked over to where she’d set down the baby monitor. He followed her glance and whipped his head back to her. “He’s here?” he asked, his voice breaking. She nodded and he ran past her.

She locked the front door quickly and then followed him upstairs. By the time she got to the nursery, Leo wasn’t crying anymore and Danny was clutching the baby to him like a lifeline. She could see tears streaming down Danny’s face and he held his son for the first time in months. He rubbed his hand up and down Leo’s back, rocking back and forth with him. Mindy lingered by the doorway, not wanting to break up this important moment. Her sniffle gave her away.

Danny looked up at her with the biggest smile on his face. “How has he gotten so big in two months?” Mindy shrugged. He looked back at Leo. “You were right, Min.” She looked at him curiously. He glanced back at her. “About keeping him from me. I would have done the exact same thing if it had been reversed.”

Mindy smiled gratefully at him. “I think that’s the quickest he’s ever settled down.”

Danny extended his arm and motioned for her. She walked forward and wrapped her arms around her son and her husband. Danny held her to him and kissed her head. She pulled her head back slightly to look him in the eye. They both still had tears in their eyes but were wearing such huge smiles. He looked between her and their son and then back at her, touching his forehead to hers. His voice breaking with emotion, he said, “I think this might be what perfection is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for keeping up with this story and for telling me such nice things!!


	15. so happy, so in love

She was going to be late for work. She could already tell. But she couldn’t exactly break herself away from kissing Danny. She’d gone too long without it. She was sure everyone would understand if she was just a little late.

She felt as Danny’s hand wove into her hair. “Mmm, Danny, I’m gonna be late for work,” she muttered against his lips.

“So? You’re always late for work…” he replied between kisses.

She pulled back with an indignant look on her face. “Hey!”

Danny tried to lean back in for another kiss but she pulled back further. “Oh come on, I was kidding…”

“Oh, so there was no truth behind that?” She asked accusingly.

Danny sputtered, trying to come up with the right answer. She reached over and grabbed his head in her hands, pulling him back to her. She paused an inch from his face saying, “It’s a good thing you’re adorable when you’re flustered.” He smirked and leaned back in for another kiss. He landed another hand in her hair, effectively loosening the pins she’d used.

While she was so content just lazily kissing Danny, she felt time ticking away and knew she should be leaving. She gave him one last kiss before she put her hands on his shoulders and physically pushed him back. “I am really going to be late for work. And now I have to go touch up my hair and makeup.”

Danny nodded his understanding, flashing her a guilty grin. She couldn’t resist one last kiss before running to a mirror to put things back in place. She gathered up her coat and her purse and walked back to the kitchen before she left. Danny stood there, holding Leo, giving him a bottle. He looked utterly content. She couldn’t help but stare at them with a huge smile on her face.

Danny looked up and smiled at her. “Remind me again, why you’re going to work today…” he asked, walking toward her.

“Money?” Mindy replied. Danny scoffed. “Look, Danny, I don’t want to go to work either, but we’re supposed to be having some big staff-wide meeting and Jeremy expects me to lead it with him.” She reached up and patted Leo on the back. “And if we’re gonna want to put this little guy through college, we need to be putting money away. That’ll be here before we know it.”

Danny stared at her in amazement. “Who are you?”

She laughed. “I know, right? I’ve had an uncomfortable amount of time to think lately,” she replied with a disgusted shiver.  She leaned in and hugged her boys. “Hey, maybe I’ll fake sick and come home early.”

Danny chuckled and kissed her forehead. “I like that idea.”

Mindy leaned up and kissed him quickly. “I love you.” She leaned over and kissed Leo on the head and said, “And I love you, too.” She couldn’t resist leaning back in for one more kiss before she absolutely had to leave.

“Love you too, Min,” Danny said she pulled back and headed for the door. “Now go to work if you must.” She laughed at his remark. She looked back and he met her gaze with a more serious expression. “Don’t worry; we’ll be here when you come home.”

She dropped her purse and ran back for another kiss. She could just tell Jeremy there was some traffic accident. That seemed believable enough.

**

“Well, well, well, someone looks cheery today,” Jeremy greeted Mindy as she walked into the office.

She smiled brightly at him. “You know what, Jeremy, I am happy today.” He followed her into her office.

“Oh? And why’s that?”

She set her things down and then looked back at Jeremy beaming. “Danny came home last night.”

Jeremy sighed happily. “He did? Oh thank God!”

She nodded in agreement. “And he brought something back with him…”

“Oh no, did he bring back drugs? Is Florida the really shady state?” Jeremy asked in a concerned tone.

“No, he didn’t bring home drugs.” She paused. “He got his memories back…”

Jeremy’s jaw dropped. “What?”

“Yeah!”

Jeremy ran around Mindy’s desk and gave her a big hug. “See, I told you it would happen! Mindy, that is the best news I’ve heard.” He paused for a moment with a strange look on his face. “Should we reschedule the meeting? I mean why are you here?”

“You sound like Danny. Have neither of you heard of a work ethic? And no, let’s keep the meeting. We need to have our bi-monthly policies meeting or else it all goes to hell.”

They had gathered all their staff in the conference room an hour later. Mindy didn’t realize that owning her own practice meant she would have to explain to Morgan about 20 times a month that he wasn’t supposed to use the copier for his own flyers. Or to make copies of his butt. But yet again, the same old common sense rules were being all but beat into their staff. Mindy wished she’d listened to Danny and had stayed home. She could be cuddled up with her boys instead of listening to the maniacs who worked for her.

“But what if we really need to use the printer? What if we lost a dog and we have no other way of posting up signs?” Morgan asked desperately.

“It’s called Kinkos, Morgan,” Jeremy replied in a bored tone.

Mindy heard a greeting from out in reception and leaned out of the door to see who was in the office. She saw Danny and Leo waiting right inside the office door. She smiled and waved him into the conference room.

Jeremy stopped talking when Danny wheeled the stroller into the room. “Sorry to interrupt, I didn’t know when the big meeting was,” Danny said sheepishly.

“Don’t be sorry, Danny, we needed some excitement anyway. It was getting a bit dry,” Jeremy replied.

Morgan leaned forward in his chair. “Um, Dr. L, I don’t want to point out the obvious to you, but Dr. C has Leo…” Morgan looked over at Danny nervously. Danny met his glance. “’Sup Dr. C?”

“I’m good, Morgan. How are you?”

“Goo – Wait! Who told him my name? I gave specific instructions for no one to do that!” Morgan yelled, looking around accusingly at the rest of the staff, ending with Mindy.

“No one told me your name, Morgan,” Danny explained.

Morgan stared at Danny for an uncomfortably long time. “Well if no one told you my name then that must mean that you – ” There were soft gasps throughout the staff. Danny looked over nervously at Mindy before looking back at Morgan. “Dr. C, do you remember?” he asked, whispering the last word.

“Yeah,” Danny replied matter of factly.

“Oh my God!” Morgan rocketed out of his chair. Danny quickly pushed the stroller to Mindy. She grabbed her son out of the way. Morgan was holding Danny tightly against him.

“Be careful, Morgan…” Mindy added as an afterthought.

One by one, the rest of the staff started a group hug with Danny, all clearly pleased to have him back. Jeremy was standing back smiling and Mindy motioned for him to join. She couldn’t resist taking out her phone to get a picture of this emotional moment. Even if he probably would never admit it, she knew this meant a lot to Danny.

**

Mindy walked in the door and was quickly greeted by Danny grabbing her around the waist and kissing her soundly. She pulled back in a daze. “Hi.”

“Hi,” he replied happily. “You hungry?”

“Of course…”

“Great! Because dinner is ready!” Danny cheered. Mindy followed Danny’s directions and sat down at the table waiting patiently. She played with Leo in his highchair while they waited for Danny to serve the food. He set a plate with a hearty steak down in front of Mindy, with a kiss on her head. He’d made basically her favorite dinner with her favorite sides and not a single comment of how terrible some of them were. She started to feel a bit skeptical.

Danny was chatting away happily about his day with Leo, so she didn’t question anything. She couldn’t hold it back though when he brought out the chocolate cake that he’d made. He was going on about how easy it was to make and how it couldn’t even be considered an inconvenience when she stopped him.

“Danny, I know what you’re doing,” she said plainly.

He looked confused. “What do you mean?” She debated how to phrase it as she watched him pick up Leo to feed him.

Mindy reached out and grabbed Danny’s hand to get his attention. “Babe, you’re overcompensating,” she explained. He still looked confused. “You’re trying to make up for not being here, but you don’t have to. You don’t have to make fancy steak dinners with extravagant desserts to make up for your injury.”

He sighed. “Min – ”

She interrupted him. “I am going to say something and I want you to repeat it after me. Okay?” Danny nodded. “It’s not my fault that I had amnesia.” Danny frowned at her. “I’m serious, Danny. Say it.”

He closed his eyes. “It’s not my fault that I had amnesia.”

Mindy patted him on the arm. “Good. Now I want you to say that to yourself every day for a while. You know, until you really believe it.”  

Danny shook his head humoredly at her. “What are you, my teacher?”

Mindy shrugged. “Maybe.” She laughed. She squeezed his hand and looked at him intently. “Danny, I just don’t want you beating yourself up over something that was out of your control. Believe me, Leo and I are just happy that you’re here and that you’re alive. We don’t need anything else.” After a beat she added. “I mean, yeah, I’m definitely gonna devour that cake over there, but that doesn’t mean you have to do anything special.”

Danny nodded his understanding, flipping his hand to hold onto hers. He laid a kiss on her hand. “I love you so much.”

Mindy leaned in and kissed him. “I love you too.”

Mindy jumped up suddenly and headed for the cake. “Here’s the plan. You feed him and I’ll start cutting this cake. I’ve had my eye on it for too long. I can’t keep waiting!” Danny laughed at her as he started feeding Leo. “And maybe if Leo’s a good little boy, he can have some cake too!” Mindy added.

Danny plopped down the baby food jar. “Yes. Bring on the cake!”

Mindy giggled as she cut slices and Danny put Leo back in his highchair. She ran back over and put a small slice down for her son. Danny pulled her onto his lap as they sat there watching Leo eagerly devour the cake. He was making the biggest mess. They didn’t care though. They were happy. And they were together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this story and for leaving me so many kind comments and kudos! It's so nice of you and it's been so great to write this with such encouragement to keep going! :)

**Author's Note:**

> I was really debating whether or not to write this all and then post it or to post it as I got bits written. I obviously caved and posted before it was finished. I'm hoping you'll like the angst. Please enjoy and let me know what you think! 
> 
> Also, if you look closely, the title and chapter titles are inspired by Amnesia by Justin Timberlake. 
> 
> Feel free to find me here: http://allmylovesatonce.tumblr.com/


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